


For Your Lies Only

by roseapprentice



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Ending, Angst, BAMF Hero!Loki, Dubcon pertains only to Orgasm Denial, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Forbidden Love, Hero!Loki, Hints of Bloodplay, Jealousy, M/M, Major Friendship Death, Mildly Dubious Consent, Moral Ambiguity, Multi, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Plot, Plotful, Polyamory, Tries to be a Role Reversal but Fails, UA, Universe Alteration, Villain Tony Stark, hero/villain role reversal, long chapters, villian!Tony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-31
Updated: 2014-01-03
Packaged: 2018-01-06 20:27:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 42,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1111146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roseapprentice/pseuds/roseapprentice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Iron Man is NOT recommended to consult on the Avengers Initiative. One thing leads to another, and Loki finds himself working for SHIELD, trying seduce Pepper Potts in order to undermine Tony’s villainous schemes. Intended to be disconcertingly in-character given the premise, but you be the judge.</p><p>A Froz3nPizza, alternate ending, and partial role-reversal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Into Reverse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which things do not go according to script.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of the scenes in this chapter start out as verbatim movie scenes. Don’t worry; none of them stay that way, and the story deviates more as it unfolds. Also, I know it takes a while for the ship to show up in this story, but I promise to make it up to you with at least one hot threesome in the final chapter. At least.
> 
> Beware the long chapter.

Tony sat alone in a warehouse, surrounded by crates and holographic displays, and waited for Fury to appear. He was still adjusting to the coconut-metal tang that the electrolytes on his tongue took on in response the newer, better arc reactor now dwelling in his chest. On the desk in front of him sat a stack of files, the most interesting of which was labeled, “Avenger Initiative Preliminary Report.”

Knowing it had been put there on purpose to catch his attention, Tony picked it up anyway, too curious not to.

Fury’s hand slammed down on the file. “I don’t think I want you looking at that. I’m not sure it pertains to you anymore. Now _this_ on the other hand is Agent Romanov's assessment of _you._ ” Fury dropped another file into the desk. “Read it.”

Tony opened the file obediently. “Uuuuum, ‘Personality Review: Tony Stark displays compulsive behavior.’” Tony looked up at Fury. “In my own defense that _was_ last week.” Returning to the file, he continued, “‘Prone to self-destructive tendencies.’ I was dying! I mean _please,_ and… aren’t we all? ‘Textbook… _narcissism_ ’?...Agreed. Oh, here we go! ‘Recruitment assessment for Avengers Initiative. Iron Man: n- _not_ recommended.’”

Tony paused and absorbed the slap of rejection. “Hm. That’s probably for the best; you can’t afford me anyway. But why invite me over just to tell me I failed the audition for the super-secret boy band? You know that’s not how callbacks usually work.”

Fury sat down across from him. “Mr. Stark, part of the reason I asked you here is to _warn_ you. The job of SHIELD is to monitor and protect against possible threats to the people of this country. That’s the whole reason behind the Avengers project. You hold an awful lot of power, and according to this report, are capable of some extremely erratic behavior. I recommend you take care not to become one of _those very threats._ ”

Tony leaned away, resting an elbow on the back of his chair. “Okay. So it’s just like, ‘If you’re not with us, you’re against us,’ except I’m not invited to be with you. That’s… smart. And if I’m such a threat, why did you even bother making sure I didn’t die?”

Fury heaved a sigh. “International politics are a powder keg right now, and you’ve gone and made yourself the fuse. Puts the world in a very awkward position. You die, and more than a few countries go to war. But you push far enough, and people are going to start pushing back. _SHIELD_ is going to start pushing back. We’re not interested in picking a fight, and that’s why I’m telling you _now_ that there is a line. Don’t cross it, and we should get along just fine.”

Tony nodded, mouth twisting into a tight smile. “Right.”

.:.

In the year that followed, the relationship between Stark Industries and SHIELD could best be described as tenuous. There was some exchange of information, and occasionally something that resembled cooperation when a common enemy appeared. There were also some incidents that did not bode well.

On several occasions Tony hacked into various compartments of the SHIELD database. A couple of those times, he even got caught.

There was the time SHIELD employed one Dr. Strange to attempt an infiltration of the Malibu house, hoping to gather a working knowledge of the technology being produced there. The doctor was sent back to SHIELD, unconscious, in a box, wrapped in brown paper, with a lovely little tag that read, “Next time your weirdo lackeys threaten Pepper, I won’t punch air holes.”

Finally, there was the time a gauntlet from Tony’s suit fell off in battle, and was recovered by SHIELD agents. It was sent to a secret research facility in Antarctica, and the search began for ways to make large-scale weaponry from the technology.

Three days later, there was a pile of ash in place of a secret research facility in Antarctica.

Most of the researchers survived, the exceptions being those who ran back into the building trying to rescue the gauntlet. Nick Fury sent Tony Stark a brief email. “That was the line. Do NOT cross it again.”

The reply, “Then don’t take my stuff.”

 

.:.

Tony and Pepper sat together in the penthouse suite, drinking champagne and bantering and celebrating. As of a few moments ago, a prototype arc reactor was powering the building in which they sat. The last of sunlight was falling away from the evening horizon, giving way to Tony’s name, _Stark,_ against the darkening sky of New York.

All was right with the world. Champagne bubbles tickled Tony’s mouth and a beautiful woman was giving him a look that said, _you’re adorable, but you’re still in trouble._

“Tell you what,” Tony offered, settling in on the floor next to her and holding up his champagne flute, “the next tower will have ‘Potts’ written across the top.”

Pepper leaned forward and reached her glass toward his. “On the _lease._ ”

Tony playfully tugged his champagne glass back out of the toast. “Call your mom. Can you bunk over?”

Pepper laughed, then leaned forward and smiled wantonly. “What, _all night?_ ”

Tony swallowed, but maintained his smirk. “Mm-hm.”

Pepper straightened up and took a disinterested sip of champagne. “I could probably stay for twelve percent of the night. I have a very strict curfew.”

“And why’s that?”

“Well, Stark Tower may be _my_ baby, but Mom seems to think that _you_ were involved, and now she doesn’t trust me with boys.”

“She picked up on that? I thought we gave it such a discreet name.”

Pepper laughed again. “Tony, if there’s one thing you’re not, it’s discreet.” She put down her glass and leaned in again. “We may need to work on that. I could probably teach you a few things.”

“I am very much on board with this plan.”

Their evening continued pleasantly from there without interruption.

 

.:.

Later that night, Loki clutched his abdomen, tender from the impact of being hurled against a rocky mountainside, his pained groan morphing into bitter laughter as he caught his breath.

Thor loomed over him, hammer in hand. “Where's the Tesseract?”

“Oh, I missed you too,” Loki chuckled, still wincing. He was having to recalculate, and quickly. Loki had very nearly decided against his initial plans to arrange a showdown between the Chitauri and the Avengers, but with Thor here, the discarded plan might be viable again.

“Do I look to be in a gaming mood?”

Loki was tempted to ask whether he looked to be in a getting-thrown-against-a-mountainside mood. After all, Thor had no more choice about playing Loki’s games than Loki had choice about being subject to his brother’s violent temper. “Oh, you should _thank_ me,” he taunted, “With the Bifrost gone, how much dark energy did the All-Father have to muster to conjure you here? Your _precious_ Earth.”

Thor dropped Mjolnir and pulled Loki up by the chest of his armor. “I thought you dead.”

Loki thought, _I **wished** me dead._ “Did you mourn?”

“We all did. Our father...”

“ _Your_ father.” Loki shoved Thor’s hands away and walked past him down the rocky slope, rubbing his back where it was still sore. “He did tell you my true parentage, did he not?”

“We were raised _together._ We played _together._ We fought _together._ Do you remember none of that?”

Loki turned and looked up at Thor. _I never stood on level ground with you. You cast me down, belittled me for all to see. Never more than a trickster, never a great warrior like you. And when you left, I learned how deep and how shapeless that abyss was, that all our friends would distrust and betray their king, because their king was **me**._

“I remember a shadow,” Loki said with honest spite, “Living in the _shade_ of your greatness. I remember you tossing me into an abyss! I who _was_ and _should_ be king.”

“So you take the world I love as recompense for your imagined slights?”

Loki laughed. That really was the question. Was he going to play that particular game, declare that he meant to rule? Act the villain to draw the ire of those who loved this planet, and direct that ire where he thought best?

“No.” Thor took a step forward. “The Earth is under my protection, Loki.”

“And you're doing a _marvelous_ job with that. The humans slaughter each other in droves, while you idly fret. They toy with powers they can’t hope to understand, and they eagerly sacrifice their own to hold onto such power when someone worthy comes to retrieve it from them.”

“You think yourself above them,” Thor accused.

Loki blinked and said obviously, “Well, _yes_.”

“Then you miss the truth of ruling, brother. A throne would suit you ill.”

As if Loki needed reminding of _that._ He snarled and shoved Thor aside as he stalked back up to the ledge of the mountain. He looked out at dim, rocky landscape beyond and shouted into the expanse of open air. “I've seen worlds you've never known about! I have grown, _Odinson_ , in my exile. I have seen the true power of the Tesseract. And when I wield it...”

“Who showed you this power?” Thor walked toward him again, suspicion creeping into his voice. “Who controls the would-be king?”

“I am a king!” The lie came out as a shout, desperate and false.

Thor took hold of Loki’s armor. “Not here! You give up the Tesseract! You give up this poisonous dream!” Thor’s voice softened. “You come home.”

 _For now,_ Loki decided, _the truth._ “I don't have it.”

Thor reacted with anger, releasing Loki and summoning his hammer to strike.

“You need the cube to bring me home, but I’ve sent it off -- I know not where.” The trickster shrugged helplessly, starting to enjoy himself as Thor’s fist tightened in anger and Loki regained the advantage of the cooler head.

Thor clenched his teeth. “Listen well brother. If you do not stop this madness--”

“Stop it _how,_ Thor? What do you suggest? Because if you in your _infinite_ wisdom can think of something better to do with thousands of bloodthirsty Chitauri, I am all ears.”

“Don’t bring them to Earth. Send them back.”

Loki laughed. “Of course! It’s so easy! Thor, you have taught me the error of my ways. I am _transformed_.” Loki’s face hardened, and he spat, “You still think the universe so _simple_.”

Thor used his free hand and took hold of Loki’s armor again. “You call me simple, and yet you grasp blindly for power!”

“Oh, _I’m_ the blind one? You don’t _begin_ to understand the forces I now control. What they _could_ do, unfettered.”

“I care not for your threats.”

“I don’t threaten.” Then Loki paused, snorted in amusement, and added, “Very well, then. What terrible fate awaits me when I don’t do as you ask?”

Thor hesitated, narrowing his eyes. “What game are you playing now?”

“One with unclear rules and very high stakes. I suggest you end your turn before someone gets hurt.”

Thor redoubled his grip on Mjolnir. “Do not toy with me, Loki!”

There was a sound of polite throat-clearing, and Thor started. The two gods turned to find that Captain America was standing ten feet away, expression one of determination warring with a desire for diplomacy. “I’m Captain Steve Rogers. You’re Thor, correct?”

Thor nodded slightly. “Captain, I have no quarrel with you. But I have business with my brother. Leave us be.”

Steve grimaced. He was sporting a plethora of bruises from the lengthy fight that had ended with Loki’s capture. “With all due respect, I can’t do that. Loki’s killed a lot of our men over the past few days. He’s given the Tesseract to a hostile force, and he’s our only hope of tracking it down again. I think you may be able to understand why _we_ have business with him _too._ ”

Thor kept a tight grip on Loki’s armor, but some of the angry tension eased from his shoulders.

“How about this,” the captain suggested. “You and Loki both come back with me, and we figure this out like reasonable people.”

.:.

There followed a brief walk through thin forest and down uneven terrain. The plane was settled in a small clearing where the ground evened out, and a little grass grew around the dark moss that dominated the mountain earth.

Once Loki was contained and in the quinjet again, Thor stood out in the clearing with Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanov, and the three heroes discussed Loki’s plans. Thor explained about the army of Chitauri.

Steve crossed his arms. “If Loki has an army and a way to get them here, three guesses where this is headed.”

Natasha nodded. “The question is, how much have we disrupted his plan by arresting him? He’s here, but where does he _want_ to be?”

“With the Tesseract?” Steve guessed.

“Loki said he knew not where the Tesseract had been sent,” said Thor.

“Loki put some of our men under a spell,” Natasha explained tightly. “It’s with them.”

Thor pressed his lips together in grim shame at his brother’s actions.

Steve said, “If we’re expecting an army, the sooner we know what Loki’s planning, the better.”

“So we interrogate him here,” Natasha concluded. “Thor, any idea what he’s really after? This will be easier if we can offer him something he wants.”

“Loki’s mind is far afield. It’s not just power he craves; it’s vengeance. On me. There’s no other lust would prise this need from him.”

Natasha raised her eyebrows and pulled her mouth to one side. “A lot of people _think_ that...”

“The way Loki was acting in Stuttgart, this is a guy who means to take over,” Steve speculated. “He wants the world to bow the knee, and he doesn’t care who has to die to get it done.”

“Has he ever been a king before?” Natasha asked.

“He ruled Asgard during my exile,” Thor confirmed. “Only briefly.”

Natasha nodded. “People will gun a lot harder to get what they lost than what they never had. It’s human nature.”

“He’s not human,” Thor reminded her. “And after his fall through the void, little remains in him of my brother. Be wary of his schemes.”

Natasha nodded. “Let’s do this.”

The two men followed her into the plane, tracking a little dirt in with them. The inside of the quinjet was all utilitarian angles and black metal. Loki still sat buckled passively into his seat. He raised his eyebrows questioningly at the three, and waited for them to speak.

“We know about the army,” said Steve.

Thor added, “And we know you plan to conquer this word.”

Loki leaned forward. “Then you know a great deal. I’m impressed. I’d be more impressed if what you know were actually true.”

Thor gripped his hammer and took a wrathful step forward, but Natasha stopped him with an upraised hand. “Then correct us,” she suggested to Loki.

Looking around at them, Loki realised how unfeasible his plan had turned out to be. Which meant if he wanted to salvage the situation and escape the Chitauri, he might have to ask for these people’s help.

Oh joy.

Maybe he could find an out. “I have questions of my own. For one, when the Chitauri _do_ come, what do you plan to do about them?”

Steve crossed his arms. “We’re not gonna let it get that far.”

“ _Again,_ your words would be impressive were they true.”

Natasha sat down across from Loki, resting her elbows on her knees, nearly mirroring his pose. “You’re saying the Chitauri _are_ coming. So if we’re still wrong about something, it means you’re also saying you’re not here to take over. I might even believe you, if it weren’t for all that _‘kneel before me’_ crap in Stuttgart...”

“Yes, the Chitauri are coming. And when they do, who will there be to defend Earth? You and the soldier can’t be the only ones Fury has gathered.”

Natasha ignored him and continued, “...Which leads me to thinking we were right about everything and you’re just pulling our legs. And that you’re worse at lying than your file would have me believe.”

“ _Lies_ , I tell quite well,” Loki muttered. “Truths are the trouble. Harder to twist truths to fit inside the small, cramped minds of the gullible.”

“You’re making this out to more difficult than it really is,” Natasha informed him.

Loki widened his eyes in mock curiosity. “Am I?”

“We’ll stop the Chitauri easy enough. All we have to do is...” She paused to shrug her nonchalance. “...torture you until you tell us where the Tesseract is. Then we bring it in.”

“But as I’ve already told Thor, I know not where the Tesseract is hidden.”

She raised a disbelieving eyebrow. “Your whole war depends on the Tesseract. Why would you even let it out of your sight?”

“So that whatever tortures Fury can concoct for me will serve no purpose. A search for a knowledge I don’t actually possess.”

Steve frowned. “Not very smart of you, putting yourself in a position to be tortured just so you can take over our little corner of the universe.”

“ _No._ ” Loki pronounced each word pointedly. “It _wouldn’t_ be, _would_ it?” He heaved a weary sigh and added, “This is ridiculous. You are, all of you, no match for the Chitauri.”

“The Chitauri are no match for _my_ will to defend Earth,” Thor declared. “Mark my words, Loki --”

“Yes, we’ve been _over_ your incredible prowess in keeping humans from harm, I think.”

“I _will_ guard them from your schemes. When I first came to Earth, your rage followed me here, and these people payed the price! And now again. If you wish to fight me, fight me, and keep our quarrels between us!”

“This is not simply some quarrel between children!” Loki insisted. “You know not the --”

“ _No!_ No more die for the sake of your petty grudges.”

Losing his temper, Loki bared his teeth and nearly snarled the words. “You. Know. Not. The. Forces. At. _Work._ The power of the Chitauri --”

“ _You will not bring them here while I protect this realm!_ ” Thor shouted, and his voice shook the metal fuselage around them.

“-- is _nothing_ to power of the one who bade me lead them!” Loki finished doggedly through Thor’s interruption. The he laughed, quite unhappily. “The things you all fear are _little._ Like children fleeing the dark under their bed, but blind to the killer at the window.”

The air was still ringing from Thor’s outburst, and Loki’s words clung in the space, suspended and disquieting.

Steve spoke. “This ‘one’ who gave you the Chitauri. What can you tell us about him?”

Loki considered before he spoke, and his calculating eyes settled on Thor. “That he is powerful, and bears a terrible grudge against the king of Asgard. And that he is in love with Death.”

Thor’s eyes narrowed grimly as he recognized the description. “I might have known who pulled your strings, Loki. So you would ally yourself with our foulest enemies to take revenge on me, on Asgard?”

Loki closed his eyes and hit his head lightly against the wall behind him, anger deflating to tired exasperation. “ _Think_ , for once, Thor. A savage army, controlled by a creature with no love for the Allfather and a distaste for all living things. Where do you think they would have attacked if I’d _not_ led them here?”

“Asgard,” Thor breathed. “Why did you not tell me sooner?”

“Oh, was this meant to be _while_ you were throwing me against the mountainside, or after, when you were ranting about the truth of ruling and insisting that you and I are somehow _brothers_? You seemed a bit busy.”

Natasha shifted her weight to the side, as if seeing Loki from a slightly altered angle might help her see past his facades. “There’s more to it than that. Why the ‘free from freedom’ schtick? Something changed, but up till now you’ve been playing a different game with us. I’d like to know why.”

Loki gave her a contemplative look, considering twisting her mind around in all sorts of unpleasant shapes, and carefully deciding against it. “The plan _was_ to lead you into a grand showdown, creating a bottleneck to send the enemy through and letting you pick the Chitauri off as they came.” Loki looked around wryly at the three of them, eyes lingering on Steve and his bruises. “But if _these_ really are the mightiest heroes Earth has to offer… you’re going to need more help than I thought.”

Steve was not impressed. “So you just decided to walk in here and use our planet as bait to keep the Chitauri away from Asgard.”

Thor was staring hard at Loki, still trying to make sense of his actions. “Loki, Asgard is better equipped to deal with such an attack. We have armies --”

Loki gritted his teeth and explained the obvious again. “...Which is why the Chitauri won’t _underestimate_ Asgard. I could never convince them to come to the Realm Eternal through a two-mile wide hole in the sky. The disadvantage is too clear. But Asgard, having won the last great war and known a thousand-year peace, will certainly _overestimate_ itself. Earth, at least, is accustomed to war.”

Natasha got to her feet and moved to stand next to Steve. “And that’s your excuse for bringing a war to our doorstep?”

“Would you rather the Chitauri come here _after_ Asgard falls, leaving the Earth no allies to turn to?”

“And just where were you planning to spring this trap?” asked Steve.

“Location will matter in making the invasion look real from the enemy's perspective. I was considering London, or perhaps New York.”

The captain shook his head. “Not an option. Too many civilians.”

Natasha looked up at Steve. “If we’re seriously considering opening this door, we’d better have a way to close it if things get too hot.”

“I’ve had your Dr. Selvig see to that.” Loki glanced pointedly at the box they had locked the scepter into. “If you return _that_ to me, I can use it close the portal, should the Chitauri force prove overwhelming.”

The three exchanged dubious looks.

“How do we know you’re telling the truth?” Steve asked.

“You don’t.”

Natasha sat again, furrowing her brows thoughtfully at Loki. “Then how about this: You give our men back to us as a gesture of good will, and we play your game.”

Loki gave Natasha surprised look, fading to a hint of a knowing smile. _You know how little that ‘gesture of good will’ would prove. You would bargain your world for one man?_

Watching the question play across his face, Natasha nodded slightly.

“ _No,_ ” Steve said instantly. “We don’t know enough to make that call.”

“He could very well be lying,” Thor agreed. “As you yourself pointed out, Loki, you’ve changed.”

“True. I have changed.” Loki folded his hands, and there was something insect-like in how his fingers interlaced, like an unconscious echo of the mannerisms and tics of some more insidious thing he’d been too long close to. “I’ve seen the pitiless heart of the universe and the cracked things that inspired reality itself to hate. I’ve been king to traitors and prisoner to worse. But I am still Loki,” he said steadily. “Still of Asgard. And _protecting Asgard_ remains my purpose and my burden.”

The brothers locked eyes for a long time, and when Thor continued to eye him guardedly, Loki went on in a whisper. “Did you really think that I would aid him, knowing that if he grew strong enough, he would one day bring her to harm?”

Thor took a small step back, and the arm holding his hammer finally went slack. Gaze still fixed on Loki, he spoke to the two Avengers. “I believe my brother to be telling to truth. The creature Loki speaks of is dangerous and clever, and catching him unawares is a chance we may not see again. By the time we know more, it may be too late.”

Natasha looked to Steve and said, “I think we have an agreement.”

Loki spoke before the captain could contradict her again. “The spell binding your men to the Tesseract is not entirely mine, but a sharp blow to the head will release their minds. I will bring them to you, and you can do the rest.”

Steve frowned. “So you _do_ know where they are.”

“No. But I know where they _will_ be.”

 

.:.

There were bad days, and then there were _bad days,_ Fury mused, and today was heading in the direction of the latter. He stood on the bridge of the helicarrier and rested a hand against the railing, looked out at the vast sea and sky ahead and worked to project grim confidence for the crew, instead of aggravated frustration.

So far, Fury had seen a SHIELD base collapse with eighty people inside, he’d had some of his best men magically turned against him, and he’d met a mad god who seemed eager to crush the whole human race underfoot. Rogers and Romanov were running late retrieving said mad god, and now Bruce Banner was in the process of explaining to him that finding the Tesseract was a no-go.

“Without more processing power, it’s still going to take weeks. Unless you’ve got a folding-at-home style network available on short notice, by the time I’ve tracked down a location the Tesseract's gonna be gone.”

After racking his brains for any conceivable alternative, Fury spoke. “Hill.”

Agent Hill came to attention.

“Call Stark. Tell him the world is ending and send him everything Dr. Banner has so far. See if he can crunch the numbers.”

Hill went to the one of the screens and made the call. Once in contact with Stark Industries, she was passed from representative to representative, wading through five layers of red tape before finally getting a call open in the same room with Tony Stark, but the man she found herself talking to introduced himself as Happy Hogan.

She started to explain herself for the sixth time, but Tony’s voice called from offscreen, “Who is it?”

“It’s SHIELD,” Hogan replied, “Sounds important.”

“Who, specifically?”

Hill raised her voice and introduced herself. “This is Agent Maria Hill. Mr. Stark, we’re facing a matter of global importance.”

Stark said, “Is she cute?”

A female voice called, “I heard that!”

“Pepper? I thought you were out -- I mean _in_! I _knew_ you were there. I was just...”

The conversation drifted out of the range of the microphone as Tony walked away without once appearing on the screen.

Hill addressed Hogan. “Tell Mr. Stark he can either get in contact with us or sit on his hands and watch the world burn.” With that, she ended the call.

After several seconds of tense silence, the screen registered an incoming call. A lackey checked it and said, “Director, it’s Tony Stark.”

“Put him though.”

Tony’s face appeared, and abruptly gave Fury a displeased look that tugged down a corner of his mouth. “If you’re Agent Hill, you sound sexier than you look.”

Fury took a breath. “Mr. St-”

“Yeah, yeah, formalities, subtle expressions of hatred, I know the drill. What’s this about the world burning?”

“There’s an object called the Tesseract. An alien hostile has taken it. Now, we need to _find_ the Tesseract --”

“Sir, we may not need to find the Tesseract,” said Steve Rogers, who was just walking into the room, a few steps behind Natasha Romanov.

Tony’s face on the screen grinned. “Captain America lives! Though not for long, if the rumors are true about the lovely lady standing next to you. Natasha, honey, it’s been too long. You haven’t done _anything_ terrible to me in almost a year; that’s --”

Fury tapped the screen and hung up on Tony. “Why not?” he asked the two not-yet Avengers.

Natasha said, “Because the Tesseract might be coming to us.”

 

.:.

“So. You knock over an entire SHIELD base, to steal the Tesseract from us, and now you say you want to give it back.” Fury summed up once Loki had been escorted to the bridge.

Fury, Romanov, Banner, Rogers, Thor, Hill, and Coulson were all gathered around the briefing table at the back of the bridge. SHIELD’s eagle symbol glowed on the walls around them and in the flat surface of the table.

Loki looked around himself cautiously, then settled his attention on Fury, considering his reply. _I realized you would be unable to defeat the Chitauri without my help._ “I realized I would be unable to defeat the Chitauri without your help.”

“There’s something you seem to confused on,” Fury ground out. “ _You’re_ the hostile. You came in looking for a fight, and you’ve done a number on us to make sure you got one. Now you want to buddy up with us against the Chitauri. Don’t come asking for my help when you’ve gone and made yourself _the_ threat.”

“Trust me, the real danger is beyond anything you’ve seen yet.”

“Don’t see any reason why I _should_ trust you. You threaten my world with war, you steal a force you can’t hope to control, you talk about peace, and you kill ‘cause it’s _fun._ ”

“Fun? Is it really?” Loki asked with a pointed smile that turned that last accusation neatly back on Fury. He took a seat at the table and cocked his head, awaiting an answer.

Fury crossed his arms and glowered. “Just what reason can you give me to believe a word you say after the stunts you’ve pulled?”

“I have, in effect, already given the Tesseract back to you, along with your men. When the sun rises, you will see that I’ve told you the truth.”

“Sounds convenient. And too easy.”

“Well, you already know what it feels like when I endeavor to make your life _difficult._ Consider this the other side of that coin.”

Fury gestured to the guards, who came forward to pull Loki to a standing position and lead him away. “When we have our men back and the Tesseract in hand, then we’ll talk. In the mean time, you can sit alone and think good and hard about the relative benefits of war crimes tribunals on Asgard versus Earth.”

“You plan to give me a choice?”

“Hell no.”

 

.:.

The glass door of his cell closed and the guards left immediately without a glance in his direction.

Loki came to rest tiredly against the chipped yellow railings that encircled his assigned cage. This was not the plan he would have chosen. It was precarious and frank. It required him to gain some small measure of trust, where Loki found it far easier to goad and anger and then step back and let the opponent charge at a point just vacated.

He had hoped to pit two sides against each other, play the part, perhaps give Thor a long overdue knife in the back if he was feeling self-indulgent… and then slip away amid the chaos. Cut the threads that bound him, be no one’s tool and no one’s relic.

But escaping the Chitauri was a long game, weaving one sticky web after another, and Loki was hardly surprised he’d gotten himself so tangled up in this one.

It was a temporary problem. Whatever ties he would find fastening him to this realm when all was said and done, it would hardly be more difficult to work free of them than it was to free himself from Thanos. Flung to the viler end of universe, his wits and words alone had gotten him back to the realms of Yggdrasil, and that was a tree he could climb more nimbly than anyone else who nested here.

One more long game, or perhaps two, and he would be free to wander the realms on his own terms.

Now, determined to win the current game, Loki set out to do just a bit of wandering.

 

.:.

Bruce was in the lab, investigating the puzzle of the scepter. They did have all the toys, as Natasha had put it, and Bruce could do just about anything with this kind of technology at his fingertips.

Except maybe find a Tesseract.

If Loki turned out to be lying, any ideas he could scrape together about how to track down the cube might be their only hope. He’d found an interesting fluctuation in the radiation given off by the scepter, and had buried himself so deep into the process of examining it that things like sleep and the passage of time had fallen by the wayside. The sky outside the wishbone window had long since gone dark.

The scepter’s radiation spiked, and Bruce hurried to bring a small handheld scanner near the head of the scepter to track the event.

“Don’t make such a fuss. The scepter recognizes me, that’s all.”

Bruce froze and looked up to find Loki standing in the room with him. He stifled his initial stab of startled fear and gave the god a wry look. “Shouldn’t you be in a cell?”

Loki shrugged briefly and started pacing, choosing his steps carefully as he explained. “Barton arrived at six this morning. Director Fury chose to let me walk free once I returned all that I had taken from him.”

Bruce put down the scanner and leaned back against the wall. “Odd, but… okay. Fury’s got the Tesseract back?”

“Yes, he has.”

“Then I can go.” Bruce started shutting down programs and returning gadgets to their places, displaying every eagerness to be far away as immediately as possible.

“And you’re comfortable with that?”

“Yes,” Bruce said curtly.

“It doesn’t bother you --”

“Look, whatever it is, no thanks. I did my work and I’m leaving.” Bruce finished straightening the lab and made for the door.

Loki picked up the scepter and examined it. “Your government hunted you to the ends of the earth, lusting after a powerful weapon. What will they do with a Tesseract? What have they already done?”

Bruce came to a standstill and dropped his head forward in defeat.

He turned toward Loki to ask _what_ , but his eyes caught a computer screen at the far end of the room displaying the time. “It’s three a.m.”

“Yes.”

“It’s too early for Barton and Selvig to be back. You should still be locked up.”

“And so I am, as far as the security cameras can tell.” Loki set the scepter carefully back on its stand. “Don’t fret; I did my work. I’ll retire to the room Fury graciously set aside for...” Loki stopped, smiled. “Well, I’ll return to my room now. Sleep well, Doctor Banner.”

“Sleep? What are you talking about?”

.:.

Bruce woke from a sound nap to find himself sitting hunched forward over one of the lab tables, having drifted off in the midst of examining the scepter. He checked the clock and it read 6:12 am and the sky out the widow was lit with an early morning sun. Bruce swore when he realized he had no way to distinguish whether his conversation with Loki had been a dream. The gadgets he had packed away in the dream were out again, the programs he had closed re-opened.

And it was just like his subconscious to tell him things he didn’t want to know the moment it got free rein. He should leave. The minute the Tesseract was back in Fury’s hands. Before then. He should get out of here before all this spiralled beyond his control. But...

But what _was_ Fury doing with the Tesseract?

 

.:.

Fury found Loki sitting on the blue padded cot in his cylindrical glass cage, looking disgustingly content with his place in the universe. This had all been way too easy, which meant the lunatic had something up his sleeve.

“Director Fury. Do you wish to talk now? You seemed hesitant to finish our conversation earlier.”

Fury paced slowly beside the chipped yellow railings that circled Loki’s cell. “Didn’t want you saying anything to piss people off. People we might have needed working together to kick your ass back to Asgard. The security cameras in this room are off, so you and I can have a private chat.” He stopped walking and shrugged. “Not that it matters much what you say to the Avengers now. ‘Cause it turns out, they can all go home. Barton showed up with the Tesseract at dawn and surrendered nice as you please. Brought along a batch of SHIELD’s most wanted, along with Dr. Selvig. Now I’ve got the Tesseract back and I’ve got _you_ behind glass. That’s just about as well as this _could_ end.”

Loki didn’t move but to smile. “Yet here you are. I take it Agent Romanov informed you of the deal she struck with me.”

Fury nodded. “She did. It was good work. She got you to help us without us lifting a finger to help _you._ We don’t owe you a thing. You picked _our_ planet to step on; now you get to see what it feels like getting your foot stuck in an anthill.” Fury stepped over to the control panel and flipped a switch, gearing up for a more demonstrative threat. “Way I see it, you could have taken this anywhere and left Earth the hell alone.”

Loki stood and stepped forward. “Without the Tesseract? Hardly. Your work with the cube is what drew the Chitauri and their allies to this world. If you keep it, the door to this planet will remain open, and another invader will come in my place. One who intends to win. It is a signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war.”

Fury frowned and lowered his hand from the the controls. “We’re not after war.”

“You’ve already waded into one without my help, little as you can see it. I offer you a battle you can win.”

“You'll have to forgive me when I neglect to thank you.” Fury realized Loki was steering the conversation, and internally swore. Giving up the interrogation as a bad job, Fury turned to leave. Maybe Romanov would have more luck, given another go. “Now, I've got eighty condolence letters to sign.”

Behind him, Loki asked. “That many fell when the base collapsed?”

Fury paused at the tone of the words: surprised concern. Instantaneous, and not overdone. Might even be genuine. The best agents used real emotion when they could. There was a crumb of a chance the guy was telling the truth. And that was too much.

Fury turned toward Loki again. “Yes.”

Loki said, “I know of a way to make certain they didn’t die in vain.”

“If you’re still breathing, they died in vain.”

“So will everyone else on this planet if you don’t help me.”

“And what exactly do you plan to do when I say no?”

Loki smiled and faded away, leaving the cell empty.

“ _Dammit._ ” Fury made for the nearest console, but the real Loki stopped him, catching Fury’s wrist.

Loki held up the scepter, suddenly in his hand. “ _If_ you said no, I would retrieve my scepter. Already, while you thought I was waiting dutifully in that cell, I used it to order Barton to bring the Tesseract back to you. Now, were I to learn that my show of good faith gained me no allies, I would take over _your_ mind. I would slowly and quietly do the same to the entire crew, including the full force of the Avengers, and I would order them into battle against the Chitauri.”

Loki released Fury’s wrist and stepped away, and the scepter faded from his hand, another illusion. “I’d rather not. The scepter is unpleasant to share a room with. Less pleasant and less safe to share a mind. I still hope you and I could work together.”

Fury eyed Loki, antagonistic but measuring. “You’d make a hell of a SHIELD agent, I give you that. If you could prove you’re not out to kill us all.”

“On that, you have my word as a god.” At Fury’s unimpressed look, Loki added, “Ask Thor.”

“Even if I _did_ believe you, I don’t much like the idea of inviting an army of hostiles onto my planet.”

Loki paused a moment to acknowledge the weight of that. “It’s not pleasant, but it’s _necessary_. If the universe falls, so does the world.”

“I have your _word_ on that too?” Fury asked, not especially credulous of Loki’s claims about the promises of gods.

Loki glanced ceiling-wards in an elegant eye-roll. “If I gave you my word on _that,_ godhood would bind me to bring it about. I’d rather leave a few unlikely loopholes open to me when dealing in the fates of realms and realities.”

Fury thought about it. Loki claimed the universe was in danger. Lies; Thor would confirm that. But if it was true, if the universe really was in danger... “We take out this army, that’s doing you a big favor. Earth would expect something in return.”

“Gods sometimes wager boons for the good work of mortals. If you can arrange a formidable opposition for the Chitauri, I will owe you a sizable favor, Director.”

“Well. You _would_ make a good SHIELD agent.”

“No,” Loki said flatly.

“You agree to work under me for a few years, and we might just have a deal.”

“Two boons. That’s more than any mortal has ever won from me.”

“I’m not haggling for _boons._ Don’t know what they are. Never seen one before. For all I know a godly boon ain't worth a goddam yen. _Missions,_ I’ll take. That means I send you out like I would any one of my men, and you follow orders and do your very best to succeed.”

“The fate of the universe, of all _reality_ is at stake. Still you bicker over the currency in which I _pay_ you to prevent it?”

Fury clasped his hands behind his back. “Well, considering you haven’t said yes, I guess that’s one thing you and I have in common.”

Loki’s lips twitched in the barest hint of a smile, but his voice was cold. “You still don’t believe me. Ask Thor.”

 

.:.

Pulling against resistance.

Oh. Restraints. Probably for the best.

“Clint, you’re gonna be alright.”

“You know that? Is that what you know?”

 

.:.

Fury returned to the bridge and spoke to Thor, who assured him that gods _were_ indeed bound to keep their word, that Loki’s story was quite plausible, and that it was, in fact, _exactly_ like Thor’s younger brother to use infuriating and roundabout means to go about saving the universe.

From there, Fury called Coulson and Rogers to the bridge and they discussed possible locations for the invasion. They settled on Hunter’s Point, an abandoned naval yard on the coast near San Francisco. It was easy to clear out on short notice with the right military clearance, and had enough housing to look like a real invasion instead of a military setup.

Coulson slid a file over to Fury, blocking the glow from one of blue panels in the surface of the briefing table. “We can get a small reactor moved to the area, but we’ll have to ask Selvig if it’s powerful enough to jump-start the Tesseract.”

“I see plans are well under way. How soon do we start?”

A lot of guns went up when Loki walked into the room, but Fury looked at Loki with more irritation than anything resembling shock and immediately looked down at his file again. Most of the agents took that as a cue and lowered their weapons.

“Sir?” Hill inquired, still training a pistol at Loki’s head.

“ _I_ don’t care if you shoot him. Wouldn’t do much, from what I’ve seen.”

Hill holstered her weapon, and Loki smiled gratefully as if it were a courtesy.

Fury looked again down at the map, running the logistics through his head. “Loki, how long do we have to set this trap?”

Loki stepped up to the table. “Not long. The invasion was planned for today. If it’s delayed, the Chitauri’s ally will suspect a trap.”

Fury nodded. “Coulson, get a jet ready and brief Selvig. We’ll need him on site, on the off chance we go through with this.”

Coulson nodded and left. Loki turned to Fury and crossed his arms thoughtfully. “And what still prevents you from going through with this?”

“The fact that _you_ suggested this plan is enough to make it stink to high hell. But that’s not your first problem. This mission isn’t happening unless the Council gives it a green light, and that’s not a probability.”

At that Loki smiled, turned and strolled uninvited onto Fury’s office, where he started clicking through the displays. “Allow me, Director. This will be the easiest conversation I’ve had all day.”

Fury glared at the back of Loki’s head, but followed him and closed the door after them.

He turned to Loki and found that the smart motherfucker had already figured out how to put a call through to the council, and was waiting for them to pick up. The four council members appeared, each on their own looming screen, and the first said, “Director Fury, what do you have for us?”

Then the four word leaders noticed Loki, and their expressions darkened. The man on the far right screen leaned forward. “Director, what’s the meaning of this?”

“The situation has become even more complicated,” Fury began. He made introductions, and then Loki began his explanation.

 

.:.

Out on the bridge, Steve walked over to Bruce where he leaned unobtrusively against the wall near the door.

Steve said, “I guess you’ll be heading out now that Fury has his cube back.”

Bruce sighed. “Yeah. About that.”

Steve looked at him inquiringly.

“The Tesseract. Fury’s story about what SHIELD is using it for. Something doesn’t add up.”

Steve glanced back at Fury’s door, then put his back to the wall next to Bruce and settled in to listen. “Tell me.”

 

.:.

Pulling against resistance.

“I got -- I got a window. I have to flush him out.”

Clint eased out of the draw, let his arms relax and the restraints go slack as burning red mutiny and the sharp black-on-white of ordered kills finally faded and gave way to the plain, functional grey of the helicarrier walls.

Natasha stood a little to his right, pouring a drink from the water pitcher. “You gotta level out. It’s gonna take time.”

“You don’t understand.” He twisted his head at an uncomfortable angle to look her in the eyes. “Have you ever had someone take your brain and play? Pull you out. Stuff something else in. Do you know what it’s like to be unmade?”

Natasha looked right back. “You know that I do.”

“Why am I back? How’d you get him out?”

“Cognitive recalibration.” She walked past him and took a seat a few inches away on the cot. “I hit you really hard on the head.”

“Thanks,” Clint said. Thanks didn’t really even cover it. She didn’t answer, instead unclasping the restraints from his wrists. Which must mean she trusted that he was back. That he wouldn’t… “Natasha. How many agents did I --?”

“ _Don’t,”_ she interrupted. “Don’t do that to yourself. This is monsters. It’s magic, and it’s nothing we were ever trained for.”

“Monsters?” He latched on to the distraction as soon as she offered it. Something to hate that wasn’t himself. “What sort of monsters?”

“Did Loki tell you what he was planning?”

“Didn’t need to know. Didn’t ask. He’s gonna make his play soon, though. Today.”

“There’s an army of aliens called the Chitauri,” Natasha explained. “Says he aims to get rid of them.”

“And you believe him,” Clint stated.

“His story checks out.” She raised an eyebrow. “But I was wondering what you could tell me.”

Clint shook his head. “Selvig knew more than I did. He was planning to use it for something. Needed a lot of rare materials. Then suddenly the plan changed. Loki ordered us all here. Let us go. Was weird, but we didn’t question it.”

“Doesn’t contradict what he’s told us.” She sighed and stood. “Loki’s of a mind to spring a trap for the Chitauri. Bring them here and have opposition set up. And I’m gonna help him. When the army hits, I’ll be in the fray.”

“ _You?_ ”

Natasha faced him, arms crossed, wordlessly inviting him to speak his piece.

“You’re a spy, not a soldier. And now you want to wade into a war? _Why?_ What did Loki say to you?”

Natasha looked away. She shrugged and sat down next to him again. The words were harder to say than she had realized, and she stared intently at the opposite wall while she spoke. “I’ve been compromised. Made a deal I shouldn't have. I‘ve made a lot of those.” She looked at Clint. “I’m gonna see this one through.”

Clint looked at her for a long time, and finally reached for his bow. “Well, you won’t be seeing it alone.”

Natasha’s eyes widened when she took his meaning. “We’ll be fighting next to Loki. You sure you’re okay with that?”

“Well, if I put an arrow through his eye socket I’d sleep better, I imagine. But that can wait. I’m not gonna let you go it alone when you’re paying the price for saving me.”

“How did you -”

“Natasha.” Clint gave her an _I know you_ look.

She gave up. “Fury’s on the bridge planning the next move.”

Clint washed up and they went to join the party.

When they arrived at the briefing area, Banner was just walking out of the room, followed by a solemn looking Captain Rogers. Once they were a ways down the hall and out of hearing range, the scientist and the super soldier exchanged concerned words. Natasha briefly considered following them, but Clint shook his head and said, “We’ve other things to deal with. Where’s Fury?”

“He’s in his office, talking to the council,” Hill answered. “Loki’s with him.”

 

.:.

In Fury’s office, the council members stared at Loki with disgust and every kind of disbelief. Loki had listed the circumstances, and his plan to deal with them, and now he waited for a reply.

On the second screen from the left, a council member cleared his throat. “You claim that this alien army will destroy the universe, unless we allow it to attempt an invasion of our planet?”

Loki tilted his head. “It’s more complex than that, but, in effect, those _are_ the long term results.”

“Do you have any evidence to support this claim?”

Loki looked down and smiled, visibly quenching a laugh. “Evidence. Well. I don’t have any evidence so conclusive as, say, an antique self-winding wristwatch with _black scuffs_ on the clasp.”

Unable to make sense of this, Fury gave Loki an _are-you-really-that-insane_ frown.

But the council member on the far left screen responded to Loki’s words by wincing back in horror. Then he leaned in and said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

Loki just kept speaking. “And I don’t have the testimony of a… _very_ young male prostitute currently living in Philadelphia. That would be... _compelling_ , don’t you think?”

Another council member, another wince.

The man on the far right spoke up. “Loki, the idea of doing as you ask is preposterous. In the past two days, you have stolen a valuable object from the United Nations, killed over seventy agents, and threatened the entire human race.”

Loki grimaced and inclined his head. “My apologies. I ultimately hope to prevent the destruction of this world. My actions seemed necessary at the time; I hope you can sympathize. Though naturally, none of you have skeletons in your closets. Nor in your _garages.._.”

The woman second from the right inadvertently tightened her hand on her pen.

“...Nor _other places more recklessly near to hand,_ ” Loki finished.

The final council member's eye flitted nervously to a point offscreen, then back to Loki. “Well, of course if this is matter of global security, then we all want to be proactive in handling that.”

“Any help you can give will be welcome,” the woman concluded, putting down her pen, and the rest of the thoroughly blackmailed quartet nodded their agreement.

Loki smiled graciously. “Glad to be of service.”

The council members ended the call, and the four screens went dark. Loki turned to Fury. “There’s nothing so comically sad as kings who guard their secrets closer than they guard their thrones.”

Fury's eye regarded him without humor. "'Cept maybe a king with no throne and a whole hill of pissed-off ants crawlin' up his leg. If you think that little stunt with the Council is enough to make the Avengers fall in line, you’ve got another thing coming."

"Natasha Romanov will follow me," Loki pointed out. "And Selvig has seen too much of the forces beyond the worlds to _dis_ believe me. Banner is simply a problem of very careful timing…."

"Banner's leaving."

"Not yet," Loki corrected lightly. "As for the rest -- Barton, Rogers, Hill, Coulson, the rest of SHIELD -- they'll most likely follow _your_ lead. And you’ve had time to consider your options, namely that no course of action but helping me is likely to end well for anyone. So, Director Fury, I find I have no choice but to lay the decision at your feet. How will the universe die?"

A long silence followed, and when Fury broke it, he did so with with a half-defeated sigh. "Awful pretty question you got there. Fuckload nicer than, 'Will you help the nut who killed your men?'"

"But you have an answer for me."

“ _First_ , you’re gonna give me your word that this really is the best shot we have at protecting Earth.”

Loki mostly stifled a victorious smile. “I give it.”

“ _Second_ \-- ”

Loki interrupted him, annoyed now. “Why do you _insist_ on drawing this out when you know what must be done and what the stakes are?”

“Because stakes or no stakes, I can still choose not to help you. And after what you’ve done to my men, I like the idea of making you dance a little.”

Loki pressed his teeth together dangerously.

“You’re going to come work at SHIELD for a while. Work off your debt to society like any other delinquent. Or we can just keep that door closed and let the Chitauri go wherever _else_ they might like.”

“One mission,” Loki conceded.

“One _year._ ”

“Consider the risks inherent in keeping me on Earth that long. Three missions, under your employment. No more.”

“And after that, you get off my turf and slink on home.”

“Agreed.”

“Your _word._ ”

“You have my word.”

.:.

They stepped out onto the bridge again and Fury looked around. “Banner’s gone?”

“Nope,” Natasha said shortly.

Clint added, “Banner and Rogers went for a stroll a few minutes ago. Looked to be quite the conversation. Guess they found some common ground worth investigating.”

Coulson arrived and said, “Sir, your jet is ready. Selvig is on board.”

Fury nodded and walked toward the door. “Hill, Barton, Romanov, Thor, Loki, Coulson, you’re with me. Williams, take command here. Tell Rogers to meet us at the jet.”

They suited up for a fight and gathered in the jet.

“Where’s Rogers?” Fury asked when Steve was the last to appear, but no one had an answer for him.

“Should we leave without him, sir?” Clint asked from the cockpit.

“No,” said Loki sharply.

“Wasn’t asking _you._ ” Clint went back to checking instrument panel.

Fury pressed a button for the intercom. “Williams, where’s Rogers?”

“I don’t know, sir. He must not have heard our broadcast. Tracking him now.”

It was then that Bruce and Steve walked into the jet. Steve was carrying a piece of Phase 2 hardware, which he threw down on the floor.

The two looked at Fury and crossed their arms, silently demanding an explanation.

Williams’ voice on the intercom said, “Computer says he’s there.”

“Just arrived,” Fury explained, and turned off the intercom.

Natasha nudged Clint commandingly and Clint started up the jet.

“No,” Bruce said quietly as the door locked and the engines started up. “No, no, no, no, no.” He tried the door, and when it didn’t open he took a step back and shook his head. “You’re kidding me.”

Bruce forced himself to calm as the jet found its course and accelerated, leaving Steve the task of shouting at everyone. “Did you just _lock_ Dr. Banner in a confined space with eight people?!”

Natasha glanced worriedly between Steve and Bruce. “Rogers, you may want to consider stuffing a sock in it.”

Coulson looked briefly scandalized at Natasha’s lack of deference to to the World’s First Superhero, before he recalled and re-affixed his unflappable persona.

“You know what I think?” Bruce asked darkly. “I think he _may want_ to know why SHIELD’s been using the Tesseract to make weapons of mass destruction.”

Loki smirked. Thor frowned at Fury. “Is this true?”

Fury looked back, grim and uncomfortable.

But Banner was _too_ agitated, and Loki turned the conversation to something the scientist’s mind could latch onto for distraction. “Dr. Selvig, I understand there is some question as to the available reactor and whether it has sufficient power to trigger the Tesseract. How much energy does the task require?”

There was a pause as everyone silently agreed that a change in subject was the only safe option, and then things went technical for a while. Once Selvig and Bruce had hashed out how the task could be accomplished with the available tools, the conversation turned to strategy, Hill, Coulson and Thor debating positions and numbers and routes of retreat.

It was Barton who interrupted with, “Why go to the trouble? Why even let them come through?” Before Loki could give him an irritated answer, the archer added, “Send a nuke. Close the door before we get any splashback. Takes out the army in one go. Simple.”

Loki stilled, and silence fell all around.

He’d not thought of that.

 _Why_ had he not thought of that?

Perhaps for the same reason he’d tricked the frost giants into Asgard, Thor into Jotunheim, and Laufey into Odin’s chambers. For the same reason he’d not imagined the Bifrost as a weapon until Heimdall had spoken of destroying Jotunheim. It was too blatant, too much like getting his hands dirty. Loki was very willing to make the simple, head-on attack when he knew the situation called for it, but it ran against his instincts. And now an obvious solution had flown past him unseen while he was busy racking his brains for ways to talk the Chitauri into destroying _themselves._

“Damn,” Loki said aloud.

“Don’t like Barton’s plan?” Rogers inquired, suspicious.

“I don’t like the _timing_. It’s too late to steal a missile even if it were easy, and I didn’t _arrive_ in this realm with time to arrange to build one.”

“Ask the Council,” Romanov suggested.

“You do have them marching to your tune,” Fury agreed, not at all pleased about it.

“Too late, again. They’ve had time to stop panicking about my ability to blackmail them and start panicking about how much power they’ve resultingly handed me.”

Rogers stepped forward. “Wait, you _blackmailed_ them? That’s why we’re all on this ride?”

“No,” said Bruce. “We’re on this ride because SHIELD looked at a dangerous, volatile force and saw a weapon it couldn’t resist.”

Selvig muttered, “Well, this’ll make for a fun five hours.”

 

.:.

Five discordant hour later, they arrived at the San Francisco Naval Shipyard. Their request to the Council had been predictably refused, and plans to fight the Chitauri were well in place, though not accompanied with the unifying, single-minded hatred Loki would have preferred to inspire in Earth’s Mightiest.

Bruce walked off the plane with his arms tightly crossed, his self-control all frayed around the edges but still intact. Loki watched the hunted body language with self-satisfaction. He had been carefully defusing the argument every time the Hulk came too close to the surface, only to let it gradually boil up again, leaving the scientist on edge and very much ready to lose his temper the moment someone pushed far enough.

Everyone left Bruce to walk peacefully in the direction of Elsewhere while things were put in place for the battle and Selvig convinced the Tesseract to open a doorway to somewhere Much Worse.

The moment everything was ready, SHIELD cars were speeding to surround and trap the retreating scientist, and Loki and Natasha stepped out, along with a small legion of SHIELD agents.

Bruce looked at the agents surrounding him, then looked down and laughed a truly miserable laugh. “Yeah. It was always gonna end this way, huh?”

Natasha spoke up. “You can’t be feeling an overabundance of control, Bruce. You’re trapped here, people you don’t trust, unfamiliar setting...”

Bruce looked around and giggled a little disbelievingly. “Actually, I think I saw an episode of Mythbusters that was filmed here.”

Loki rolled his eyes. “Romanov, you are _not helping._ ” He simplified matters by sending a bolt of magic at Bruce that neatly ran him through, a deadly shot if the target had been human. The move lacked finesse, but it did the job. Bruce hit the pavement hard and started transforming.

The portal opened and the Chitauri came flooding through, and then battle hit with chaotic force.

It went on for hours. Hawkeye ran out of arrows five times. Hill and Black Widow went to some daring lengths to help him restock. The rest of the time, the two women fought on the ground beside Rogers.

Loki played a cat-and-mouse game with an increasingly frustrated Hulk, sending out clones and positioning them so that there was always a mess of Chitauri standing between the Hulk and the object of his rage. The Hulk plowed his way through all offending creatures, each time reaching his destination only to find that the puny god had disappeared or moved.

Coulson unpacked a terrifyingly large gun that shot fire and destruction, and did his share of damage before a group of Chitauri managed to corner him near one of the housing developments and disarm him. When Romanov helped him off the battlefield and into an evacuation vehicle, he was sporting a broken leg and a nasty concussion.

By the time it was over, the naval yard was transformed, wrecked by the Hulk and piled with the bodies of Chitauri and Leviathans. Dead tired and smattered with bleeding cuts and a few minor sprains, the victors stood on a stretch of asphalt at the center of chaos and took in their handiwork.

The aliens’ unfortunate philosophy of battle had kept them charging through the portal long after the fight was clearly lost, the fight ending only when the Other leading them realized he had been tricked. By then nearly a third of the alien army had come through to their death, enough to make the Chitauri a far less serious threat to Asgard. And a pretty grim body count to see laid out. Natasha and Loki were composed enough, but Steve and Clint both looked somber, and maybe a little ill.

Thor spoke to assuage their discomfort. “The Chitauri are not sentient as you and I understand it. They are a simple people, who do not think as clearly nor feel as deeply as we.” (This actually had the effect of making the other Avengers _more_ uncomfortable, not less.) “Well fought, my friends. I will return shortly.” And Thor wandered off without further explanation.

Natasha sat. Steve and Clint followed suit, and didn’t even come to attention when Fury arrived. Nor did they move when Bruce reappeared in a scavenged pair of trousers, with a lot to say. The scientist was -- well, _furious_ was the wrong term -- but _disappointed_ with the way the SHIELD agents had used him, and made it clear before his disappearance that he would not come in willingly next time.

It was about an hour before Thor returned, walking straight up to Loki with the Tesseract in hand, the cube stored in a container of non-Earth origin. No one was really sure where he had been hiding that, but wherever it had come from, the thunder god held it up and presented one end for his brother to take hold. “Come along, Loki. It is time we return to Asgard, where you will face the consequences of your actions.”

Loki took a step back. “Now that is an invitation it _saddens_ me to decline. But you see, I have a bargain with Director Fury here that would be difficult to fulfill away from Earth. Inconvenient, I know.”

Thor glared at Fury, and Fury glared at Loki.

“Loki,” Thor growled. “If you will not come willingly --”

“Would you make an oathbreaker of me?” Loki challenged sharply, raising his chin.

Thor’s hands clenched and unclenched as he stared down his brother, considering his options. “When your bargain is fulfilled, you will return to Asgard.”

“I make no promises.”

Thor looked down and worked his jaw, holding back a wave of anger that would not help him. “Then I will come for you when the debt here is settled.”

Loki lifted his eyebrows. “Don’t wait up.”

So Thor returned to Asgard, and Loki remained on Earth.

 

.:.

In a prison cell deep in the basements of a SHIELD facility, Samuel Sterns was thinking a great deal. He was thinking about revenge, and he was thinking about creating new life, and he was thinking about science. But most of all, he was thinking about escape.

And with an epiphany and a smile, he thought, _SHIELD never did get a contract to replace those Hammer-Tech security cameras._

At the same time, high up in the New York skyline, Tony Stark was thinking about weapons.

 

.:.

Loki’s first mission for Fury was to thwart and capture an escaped prisoner of SHIELD, a man once known as Doctor Samuel Sterns. Now the man went by “The Leader” and commanded an army of plastic beings. His strategies were informed by a near-prophetic ability to calculate odds, and motivated by a hatred of SHIELD and any other governing body inclined to hinder his research.

 _Why,_ Loki thought to himself, _is it always San Francisco?_

He and the other Avengers -- Loki, Rogers, and two assassins -- were fighting hard against a mass of unthinking plastic in the more industrial section of the city, and they were decidedly losing. It was frankly embarrassing, with the press taking pictures from much too close for their own safety or Loki’s pride. He had taken on gods and worlds, and one little scientist was foiling his every trick with a little radiation-enhanced insight.

Doing his best not to think too hard about what he was doing -- not to pick out the most reasonable plan -- Loki turned himself and his teammates into mice and they all scurried a retreat into a nearby industrial building and up onto the roof. It wouldn’t buy much time. The Leader had already caught on and the plastic beings were climbing the walls toward them, but no trap was waiting for them where they stood and the four had half a minute to breathe.

Loki sat, struggling to do just that. He had made good use of spells and tricks to bring down more of the plastic creatures than the other three combined, but the opposing force was too big, and his endurance was waning.

Steve put a hand on the railing and looked down the wall at the plastic people. “We need a new approach. He knows everything we’re going to do before we do it. I don’t see how this could get much worse.”

Clint shook his head. “You’re the world’s first superhero, and you don’t know better than to say that?”

Natasha was taking the moment of quiet to move some of her weapons to the more easily reachable sheaths and holsters she had emptied during the fight. “At least Sterns didn’t steal any Starktech. That would’ve made for a bigger headache.”

“It might have gotten Stark fighting on our side, though,” Steve pointed out.

“That’s what I meant. I’m just as glad not having Iron Man for an ally.” Natasha gritted her teeth and pulled a big shard of plastic out of her leg. “Guy’s impulsive, selfish and flashy. He’s the type gets people killed, no matter whose side you’re on. A pissed off Tony Stark is the last thing anyone needs at a time like this. Sterns must have known that too.”

Loki blinked and stood. “Miss Romanov, I believe you’ve given me an idea.”

“What?”

“Something impulsive.” Loki grinned, feeling almost young for the thrilling recklessness of his plan. “And flashy.”

He didn’t get to use it, though. A moment later, the army of plastic went still, and Samuel Sterns himself walked up the street below to to look at them from amid the wreckage, hands raised in sheepish surrender. “Okay, okay!” He called. “I’m turning myself in. No tricks, I promise! You, mister, play very dirty,” the villain accused, pointing a finger at Loki without lowering his hands. “I don’t like your plans at _all._ ”

Loki snorted and leaned forward to call down a reply. “You’ll forgive me if I consider that a compliment.”

“Loki,” Clint said, “Now might be a good time to let us in on the joke.”

“Doctor Sterns is aware of all the possible outcomes,” Loki explained, gracing The Leader with the smuggest of smiles. “He understands exactly what his options are, even more clearly than I do. He’s seen the _wisdom_ of surrendering.”

“What changed?” Steve asked.

“Loki came up with a plan,” Clint said. “That’s all it took. Loki came up with a plan, and it changed the odds enough that The Leader _gave up_ without a fight. It’s over.”

There was a collective glance at Loki, part awe, part a distrust he was more than used to: the discomfort of those who were used to fighting their own battles and didn’t understand the machinations by which they had been saved.

“What was the plan?” Steve finally asked.

“Is it relevant?” Loki asked tiredly, beginning to feel the weight of exhaustion from the battle. “You have your man.”

They arrested Sterns without incident, and that was the end of the matter.

 

.:.

For the strained relations between Stark Industries and SHIELD, the last straw fell one spring evening, in a near-deserted R&D floor of Stark Tower, when a young scientist working in the tower came across the plans for a new device and the applications being considered for it, and quietly made the decision to go to the police.

The police called the FBI. The FBI called Fury. Fury called Tony and said, “We have a warrant for your arrest.”

To which Tony replied, “For which?” paused, and clarified, “I mean, uh, what did I do?”

“Project ‘TIDY.’ You and Virginia Potts are both wanted for conspiracy to commit treason.”

“ _TIDY_ is your problem? Wait, nevermind that. You want to arrest Pepper too? You _have_ to know that’s not going to happen.”

“I know nothing of the sort. Now, if you take my advice, you’ll both turn yourselves in before this gets any uglier.”

“Hmm.” Tony tilted his head thoughtfully. “No thanks, Nick.”

“Mr. Stark, this is not a game.”

“You _say_ that, because you’re going to lose,” Tony said, and hung up. “Jarvis, fill in Pepper. If she’s out, get her here as soon as possible. And bring up the designs for TIDY. We may have to rush these to a broader application than I thought.”

 

.:.

Loki sat in Fury’s office and awaited briefing on his next mission. The newspaper on the desk read, “ **Strange Superhero Saves San Francisco From Silicone Army.** ” Loki hoped his next mission would be as brief as the last. He’d been starting to enjoy all his free time, and the chance to soak up the primitive but entertainingly bizarre local culture.

Fury handed him a briefing file, which Loki flipped open and started reading. “You want me to infiltrate Stark Industries? Toward what end?” How long was _this_ going to take?

“Project called TIDY. Our informant warned us it was a global threat, but was unable to bring us detailed files on the technology. Your job is simple. Break in, steal the plans in as comprehensive a form as possible, and bring them here. If you can trick or magic any high level Stark employee onto your good side, this should be smooth and simple.”

“What is the nature of the project exactly?”

“You don’t need to know that. You don’t even _look_ at the contents of those files unless it proves necessary to complete the mission. At this point, the fewer people know this technology exists, the better. Any more questions?”

Loki smiled a little. “Nothing you’ll answer.”

“Good. Dismissed.”

 

.:.

Tony was sitting on a swivel chair in the eye of a cyclone of holographic displays. Pepper sat on the sofa nearby, buried deep in news reports and personnel files, watching for public statements released by SHIELD, compiling lists of who would need to be let go, and which employees they could trust to stay loyal through the oncoming storm.

She had contacted Fury earlier and endeavored to make nice -- “Director Fury, it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I hope we can clear all this up.” -- and found no headway. The conversation had ended ten minutes later on much less pleasant terms. “Director, you can take your 'last straws' and your 'risk management protocols,' and shove them all up your over-paranoid assessment of the situation!" And she had hung up, leaving herself and Tony exactly where they had started.

Now the two outlaws were steeped in their work, oblivious to the world and each other. They both snapped to startled attention when the elevator chimed.

The doors opened, and Tony grinned when he saw who it was. “Rhodey! My man! Come in, come in. I was wondering when you’d get here. I need you put in a good word with --”

Rhodey scowled and overrode Tony’s joviality. “Tony, SHIELD has a warrant out for your arrest. Do you realize how serious this is?”

Tony just spun in his swivel chair and shrugged carelessly. “SHIELD will very shortly be a non-issue for me.”

“Yeah, and the way I heard it, you’re going to make the American government into a similar ‘non-issue.’”

“That’s the plan.”

“That’s treason.”

Tony frowned at Rhodey when he realized how much contempt his friend had for his brilliant plan. “No, see, you’re looking at this from completely the wrong angle. It’s not like I’m going to kill anybody.”

“Tony, just turn yourself in already. This is --”

Tony rolled his eyes and turned back to his work. “Here we go...”

“No, Tony, I’m serious. You don’t think anyone will die because of what you’re doing? You don’t seem to realize the the chaos you can cause by changing the balance of power with the flip of a switch. You can’t keep doing this. You can’t play god and just keep thinking it doesn’t come with consequences.”

Tony spun to face him and stood. “No one _cares_ if I play god as long I’ve got some bloodthirsty government agency backing me! Now I don’t, and suddenly I’m the bad guy? I’m just trying to do what’s right.” In a softer voice, Tony added, “Rhodey, come on. I don’t need a lecture, and I don’t need time to get my mind right. I need you on my side.”

Rhodey backed away, shaking his head. “You’ve lost perspective, Tony. You’ve gone too far. I can’t help you with this. Pepper, have you tried to talk some sense into him yet?”

Pepper looked back sadly. “Rhodey, I don’t think we have many options at this point. If Tony turns himself in now, do you really think they’ll just let him go with a slap on the wrist?”

“And what happens to the suit?” Tony added. “Has it occurred to you that the whole reason behind those warrants is to leave my tech undefended?”

“Your plan is insane, Tony. You don’t want to go to jail? Fine. Do something else. Run away.” Rhodey pointed at the screen displaying Tony’s designs. “Don’t do _this._ And if you do, _don’t_ ask me to be a part of it.”

Tony took a step forward. “Hey, _they_ brought this fight to _me_. How is it a _bad_ thing that I can win before they have time to draw and before anyone gets hurt?”

But Rhodey was walking away. “I’ll show myself out.”

“I want my suit back,” Tony snapped.

Rhodey stepped into the elevator and turned to press the button for the ground floor. “Take it. I don’t need it. I have a country,” he said, and disappeared behind the closing doors.

The War Machine suit was delivered to the tower later that day, and Rhodey did not contact them again.

 

.:.

Dressed in the business garb of a Stark employee, it was easy as breathing for Loki to talk his way past the reception desk and up the first few floors of Stark Tower. He ran into trouble at floor ten, when he went to switch elevators and the new elevator had additional security such that when he pressed the button it buzzed rudely, blinked red and informed him that he didn’t have the proper clearance.

Not terribly hard to go on from there. There was a woman working at a nearby desk who was now staring at him. Loki decided to convince her that he had been summoned by Tony Stark, and there was some sort of malfunction or misunderstanding in the security system. To save time, he cast a spell to make her more susceptible to persuasion, moving his hands just _so_ and--

ALERT! ALERT! THERE IS AN UNAUTHORIZED MAGIC USER IN THE TOWER. ALERT...

There were flashing lights and loud alarms. When everyone looked up from their work to stare, Loki’s hands were still gesturing with his failed attempt at magic.

So much for going unnoticed.

Loki tried magic again, this time to hide himself, but the spell disappeared the moment it left his hands, ripped away like paper in a strong wind. If Fury had _warned_ him about the magic detection, this could have all been ridiculously easy. Instead, it was merely ridiculous.

The workers rose from their seats and lined up nervously but neatly to evacuate the floor, and Loki couldn’t help but be impressed with the training that must have been required to ensure that moments like these went so smoothly. But he quickly shifted his attention to the security personnel moving to surround him, guns raised.

Loki raised his arms in a gesture of surrender, eyes sweeping across the semicircle of guards measuringly.

Then he moved. He’d disarmed three opponents before the first shot hit him near the right shoulder, and more shots followed. The metal bullets proved less than deadly, but without his armor they _hurt_ , leaving bloody bruises where they hit their mark.

Loki was swearing by the time he took down the last guard, a young woman with excellent aim who was responsible for half of his smarting bruises.

Out of breath and searching the floor for an escape, he spotted the red and gold of Iron Man outside the window and swore again.

Stark blasted away the window glass and flew in, office papers scattering from desks as he passed. He landed, and the metal surfaces of his suit shifted to reveal innumerable projectiles that looked far more creative and unpleasant than bullets, all aimed at Loki.

Loki raised his arms amicably again. “I believe now is your cue to demand to know how I got past your security.”

Stark lifted his faceplate. “Oh, I know how you got in. That’s why I have Jarvis guard the high-security floors. He doesn't have a weakness for pretty faces. Except of course mine.”

The voice that had earlier barred Loki from the elevator spoke up again. “You are the very personification of human beauty, Sir.”

“Music to my ears, Jarvis,” Stark said, then addressed Loki again. “Alright pretty boy, you put those hands behind your back _real_ slow while the nice man behind you applies the handcuffs.”

Loki did as he was told and felt the metal cuffs click into place. He tugged his hands apart lightly to test the give in the chain, surprised when he found none.

“Care to tell me who you are and why you stopped by?”

“I was told the residential floor offers an excellent view of the city. Naturally, I chose to find out for myself.”

Taking in the gall of that answer, Tony found himself smiling. “You know, considering how much shorter your lifespan just got, I might be able to arrange that.”

 

.:.

So it was that Loki found himself in the glamorous top-floor-made-dwelling of Stark Tower, hands cuffed behind his back to a very sturdy metal chair which had been securely bolted to the floor just for him, waiting for his captor to return.

When Stark reappeared, now dressed in jeans and a Rolling Stones T-shirt, he was accompanied by a beautiful woman with freckles, golden-red hair and a warm smile. Loki had heard a little about Pepper Potts, but his first impression of her was that she probably served mainly for decoration.

Stark, after a self-indulgent glance at Pepper that reinforced the god’s opinion, turned to Loki and spoke. “You know, I’ve had people try to break into my house with magic before, so I took precautions when I built this place. Funny thing about magic; it turns out arc reactors are great for absorbing that type of energy, and I’ve come up with a way to isolate that effect. Result: you can’t actually do magic in this tower without my say-so. Try, and my building gets a free power boost. Have fun with that.”

Loki absorbed the information quietly, not replying when Stark paused for him to speak.

“So. Rock of Ages. You got a name?”

“Loki of Asgard.”

“Loki?” Stark spun his index finger in the air in searching recollection. “Aren’t you the Norse god of disorder?”

“So I’ve been called.”

“Well, I’m an atheist, so this could get awkward. Tell me, Mr. Of Asgard, what exactly were you planning on doing in my tower?”

“Oh, I think you can guess.” Always better to let the interrogator tell _you_ what he wanted to hear.

“Hm. Another SHIELD lackey trying to steal my tech, slash stop my dastardly plans. Jarvis, hack into SHIELD’s database. Find all the information you can on Loki and anything related to him. Pepper, once that comes through, read up on it, ‘kay?”

“I have to do damage control on the press,” Pepper informed him. “SHIELD just made our arrest warrants public and we need to put on a sympathetic face. After that I’ll see what I can do.”

“Shouldn’t take you five minutes.” Stark pulled her in close for a thorough and warm goodbye kiss. “Work your magic, babe,” he muttered, and watched Pepper go on her way.

Once she was in the elevator, Stark turned back to Loki. “In a few hours, I’ll know all your dirty secrets. Well, she will. Close enough.”

Loki mentally ratcheted up his estimation of Pepper’s influence, and aloud he scoffed at Stark’s words. “If SHIELD knew the half of my dirty secrets, I hardly think I’d be _here_.”

Stark drew back his head with a slight involuntary smile of surprised fascination. “Sexy _and_ mysterious. Very nice.” He walked around to his bar and picked up a bottle of scotch and two glasses. “Drink?”

Loki eyed the glasses with suspicion. “No, thank you.”

Stark shrugged and poured himself a glass. Then he left the bar, pulled up a chair in front of Loki and sat. “Here’s the thing. SHIELD wouldn't have issued those arrest warrants unless they thought they could follow through. Which means they have some advantage I don’t know about. I _hate_ it when people have that. It’s probably not enough to stop me, but missing variables make things messy. Anything you might know about?”

“And if I don’t answer?” Then Loki smiled. “Oh, _tell me_ you’re going to _threaten_ me.”

“Well, first I was going to appeal to your humanity. The threatening part comes later.”

“My _humanity_?”

“Not the best choice of words, maybe. But whatever desire you have to do good to the human race. Tell me Loki, have you heard exactly why SHIELD’s been so antsy about me lately?”

“Because you possess power, superior technology, and no notable self-control?”

“I specified _lately._ ” Tony stood again and took a few dramatic steps back, pulling computer displays out of thin air with the manner of one who really is doing a magic trick. “Here’s what they may not have told you.” The displays moved to show plans -- blueprints, calculations, 3D models and animations -- for small machines. Very small, if the labeled measurements held true. “Let me introduce you… to project TIDY. Total Involuntary Disarmament Yesterday.”

“Nanites,” Loki surmised.

Tony pulled up another graphic. “Nanites that can recognize and disassemble any modern weapon, be it metal, plastic, or high explosive. I set them loose on the world, and voilà, no more guns, no more tanks, no more warheads. It’s world peace in bite-sized pieces.”

Loki’s veneer of calm momentarily let slip a touch of genuine shock. “They won’t dismantle your suits?”

“Of course not. My suits aren’t weapons.” Tony frowned. “But try getting a robot smaller than a human cell to understand _that_ delicate distinction. It’s harder than you’d think.”

“You’re going to make yourself the sole military power in the world,” Loki breathed.

“I prefer to think of it as a _total_ world demilitarization.”

“You’re _mad_.”

Tony sighed sadly. “I’d sort of hoped you would see the elegance of it.”

A smile tugged at Loki’s lips. “Forgive me; that wasn’t an _insult_. It’s a lovely and elegant sort of madness. But still. _Madness_.”

Returning to his chair, Tony narrowed his eyes and took a sip of his scotch. “Now I’m starting to think you’ve got a little of that yourself.”

“A little of what?”

“Lovely and elegant madness. I gotta say, it suits you. If I wasn’t in a committed relationship...” Tony looked Loki up and down with a low whistle.

“You so fear your ideas being stolen, yet you would release these creatures freely upon the world?”

Tony shrugged and went back to bragging. “Not a problem. Anyone tries to tamper with them, anyone so much as passes an x-ray through them, they quietly self-destruct. And get this --” Tony grinned proudly at his holographic creations. “ _Non-toxic_. You can actually eat them with minimal side-effects. Unless you’ve got a handgun surgically implanted in your system or something comparably weapon-flavored, but at that point you’ve already got problems.

“Now, I _was_ designing them for specific, targeted strikes. Could have avoided a very _not fun_ tour of Antarctica if I’d invented these little darlings a year earlier. The whole idea of setting them loose in the world was -- yes, admittedly, on the _drawing board,_ but -- _totally_ mostly abstract until SHIELD forced my hand. Yeah, the acronym’s incriminating, but I wasn’t seriously planning to do this in the next five years until they decided to arrest me for… _planning to do this._ ”

“Yes, you’re clearly the victim in this.”

“Okay, I can see the soft sell isn’t cutting it. Here’s the part where I threaten you.” Stark shifted in his chair to place his glass on a nearby table, and leaned in toward Loki. “ _Either_ you can cooperate, give me the information I need to keep me and mine safe from SHIELD, _or_ you can take the express route to the bottom floor and we’ll test scientifically whether gods go _splat._ And in case it’s unclear, the express route is that window over there.”

“You’re lying.”

Tony grinned viciously. “Maybe I’m not.”

“No; I’m a bit of an expert with these things. You’re definitely lying.”

“Okay, yes, but not as much as you might think. Obviously, I’m not going to kill you five minutes after meeting you when you might know something I need.” Stark shrugged apologetically. “ _Doesn’t_ mean I’m not going to kill you eventually. I’ve warned SHIELD a few times that bad things can happen to those they send uninvited onto my turf. You might consider giving me a good reason not to make you the consummate proof.”

“Still, you won’t.”

“Why not?”

“You like me.”

“Hm,” Stark said shortly. He stood and retrieved his glass, quick on his feet in a way that spoke of inexhaustible energy. Loki realized that the man before him was actually a little flustered, though he hid it masterfully. “You have fun testing that theory,” Stark said, turning his back to Loki as he walked back to the bar, “I’m having a cell made up a few floors down, too strong for even you to break out of. It should be done by now, so you can just wait down there and think about what you’ve done, while I decide what I’m going to do with you. Hint: if you don’t tell me anything that helps me, it’s not going to be fun for you.”

“I’m not so sure about that,” Loki said, as the guards stepped forward to move him.

“Aw, honey, that’s alright; I’m sure enough for the both of us.”

 

.:.

“You _know_ this is going to look like kidnap,” Pepper complained to Tony that evening as they lay in bed, both exhausted and waiting to fall asleep.

“Oh, come on. I caught him breaking into my _house_. No judge would convict me. Mostly because I’d bribe them, but still.”

Pepper rolled her eyes. “I’m going to try interrogating him before you do anything drastic.”

“I tried that already.”

“Tony, I love you, but you’re not exactly a people person. I bet you just threatened to throw him out of an airplane if he didn’t cooperate.”

“Window,” Tony corrected. “And I am _great_ with people. With exception of people who don’t like me, and they have poor taste. There’s no accounting for that. Besides, he’s _my_ prisoner,” he added with a slight pout.

“Tony.” Her voice turned warning.

“Fine, fine, chat him up. Knock yourself out. But be careful, alright? He’s...” Tony searched for the right words.

“I know. I’ll leave the room if I get in over my head. And thank you.” She kissed his cheek and snuggled closer.

“It’s a bad idea,” he stated, then smiled at her. “And you’re welcome.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> With thanks to qwanderer for thinking up the acronym, and thanks to qwanderer and Iris Lefay Longbottom for beta’ing.
> 
> And thanks to you for reading! Next chapter plans to go up on Wednesday.


	2. Out of Gear

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which love is inconvenient, and everyone cries a lot.

Loki sat on a cot in a concrete room. The scars on the wall indicated that it had once been used to test some compound that was unstable and prone to violent explosion. But the space had been modified to become his containment cell. 

A wall of clear plastic had been added, creating a barrier between him and the exit. The plastic was broken up by a locked door, a pattern of holes that allowed air to circulate through the room, and a short, wide slot through which the guards delivered trays of food. Aside from plumbing fixtures, the only furnishings were the cot under him and a low table next to the food slot. 

Being trapped in here was hardly part of the plan, which left Loki with the puzzle of finding a way out. He tested first the door, and then kicked at the wall with all his strength. How on _Earth_ of all places had Stark come up with a formula for making god-proof plastic? 

Loki shook his head and paced his cage, abandoning brute force and considering the more intricate escapes that were his preference anyway. 

Stark had found a way to capture magical energy, and perhaps that was enough to stop Thor or an inexperienced Earth magician, but Loki doubted that Stark had planned against true magical mastery when he designed his countermeasures. With a tilt of his bound hands, Loki released a slight wisp of raw magical energy. It was wrenched from his hands with a force that surprised him, braced for it as he was. The wisp of magic settled into a point in the wall of his cell. 

So. Devices in the walls that pulled the magic to them before it could be formed into something else. The magic would always be pulled away the moment he started to work with it. 

No, he corrected himself, the moment it _left his hands._

Not before. 

Loki closed his eyes and shut out all thought but this; summoning magic to his fingertips but not past them, holding the energy beneath its skin so it would not slip away. The magic squirmed in his bones, trying to escape or bend itself to some transformation or purpose, but he ignored his instincts and managed to hold it nearly still. 

Loki worked at the energy, trying to shape it without releasing it to the open air. This was _not_ how magic was _done,_ and the spell, formed too early and too solid for its place in his flesh, sent a wave of hair-raising shudders through his body that settled in his stomach in a distinctly unpleasant way. Continuing his work, he tried to build something that had some resilience to the pull of Stark’s machines, but the spell resisted him and took odd turns. 

Ultimately it slipped from his fingers. The magic tore away and into the wall as quickly as before, much to Loki’s frustration. But some of his nausea immediately eased. He took a breath and prepared to try again, to perhaps think of another approach. 

But something felt odd. He stopped and focused his senses in on the device in the wall. 

A spell was building there, gradually, like something spiraling and slowly climbing. Focusing more carefully, he recognized his own magic, and it had taken on a defiant flavor. The spell had survived the process of being stored as energy, but become distorted into a slower and simpler being. Building and building. 

Then Loki realized just _what_ the spell would do, and how close it was to his person, and worked to think clearly through growing panic. 

Learning quickly in his desperation, he formed and sent another spell into the wall, and another, trying to find a magic that would survive the absorption process and cancel out the first. On the fifth try, it took. The spell in the wall stopped building, hovered at a point of tension, and started to slowly dissolve, until there was nothing left in the room that was quite magic. 

Exhausted and relieved, Loki took a shaky breath, and then leaned back and _grinned._

.:.

When Pepper went to Loki's cell, his eyes were closed, and remained so as she quietly closed the door behind her. The imprisoned god wore the same dark grey slacks and white button-up shirt he’d been wearing when he infiltrated the tower. Lovely black hair framed a pale, handsome face that did not move to signal any awareness of Pepper’s presence. She had read Loki’s file, and knew she was out of her depth trying to interrogate him. 

But Pepper would try anyway, because she was stubborn, and because experience told her he would underestimate her. She had negotiated business deals with shrewd and powerful men, and had yet to come out the worse for it. 

She called on those instincts now, working to get a clearer sense of who this god was. From what SHIELD knew he was intelligent, manipulative, but sometimes reckless and overzealous. A man like Loki had no worse enemy than himself. Pepper couldn’t outsmart him, but if she let him, he might just outsmart himself. _So, Loki, I’ll let you take the lead,_ she thought. 

.:.

Loki sat, in the silence and the dark created by his own closed eyes, and waited for Pepper to announce her obvious presence. 

The poor woman didn’t seem to realize that just by putting herself alone in a room with him, she had already erred enough to lose herself the game. Now all that remained were the closing moves. Convincing her to sympathize with him, making her see the flawed motives of the lover who relied on her far too much. Intentionally or not, she would certainly help Loki escape, now that she had given him the chance to speak with her. 

He heard the _tap_ of an audible step, Pepper’s way of placing the ball in Loki’s court as passively as possible. 

_Single her out,_ he silently advised himself. _Make her feel unique and intriguing._ Loki raised an eyebrow without opening his eyes. “Not many people can sneak up on me.” 

Met with silence, he opened his eyes. 

Pepper had crossed her arms, unimpressed. “You knew I was here.” 

Loki tilted his head and looked her up and down, recalculating. “ _Why_ are you here?” 

Pepper shrugged, and answered honestly. “Because if you don’t tell Tony what he wants to know about SHIELD, he might decide to hurt you, and --” 

“And you don’t want to see that happen?” Loki’s smile was both knowing and curious. Whether Pepper feared for Loki’s bodily safety or Tony’s moral safety, it was a wonderful start. “Pepper Potts, why don’t you want your lover to harm me?” 

She looked away and pursed her lips, uncomfortable. “I don’t want _anyone_ to get hurt.” 

“Oh, it’s more than that.” Loki leaned forward. “You’re _afraid_. The world around you is changing quickly, Stark may not be the man you thought he was, and you’re afraid to _see him hurt me_ because of what it would mean. And no matter how you-” 

_SLAM_ went the door as Pepper walked out. 

Loki gaped at it and blinked, inertia lost. 

This was… a surprise, actually. Certainly, he has expected _some_ kind of retreat, expected her to close her eyes or look away or try to deny his words. It was another thing entirely to remove herself so quickly from the situation. She had put herself beyond the influence of his words, at just the moment when his words would have had the most impact. 

Loki worked his jaw thoughtfully, closed his mouth, and smiled to himself. 

Clever, clever woman. 

Not clever enough, though, to avoid the words he had said already. They would linger in her mind, and with luck she would take pity on him when it mattered most. 

Loki resigned himself to a long and boring wait. 

And so he was surprised when Pepper returned the next morning and brought him his breakfast tray. 

The door opened and let in the pleasant smells of bacon, toast, and light perfume. When Pepper appeared, she was wearing slightly thicker eyeliner than before, a sign of a sleepless night spent in troubled thought. And yet, it emphasized the soft blue-green of her irises, and any air of troubled thoughts was gone from her now. 

In spite of Pepper’s tiredness, there was a settled, comfortable mood about her, that of someone who had just gained a hard-won and stabilizing wisdom. It flowed out through all her little beauties, in the way the light caught single strands of her hair where they stuck out uncooperatively, in the grace of her hands and, really, the grace of all her motions. 

How elegant it would be, Loki thought, if she opened the door to his cell because she _wanted_ to. He needed to escape this room, and of all the ways to trick her into aiding him... “I’d very much like to seduce you, you know.” 

Surprise and just the beginning a blush, quickly replaced with a polite, uninterested smile. “Well, that’s very flattering, but I’m taken.” She pushed the tray through the slot in the plastic wall and onto the low table. 

Loki gave her a courteous, “Thank you,” and she replied with another half-sincere smile before turning to leave. 

About to reach the door, Pepper stopped, sighed and turned back. “I thought about what you said. You’re right. I’m scared to see Tony hurting someone. I’m scared of what it might do to him.” 

Loki listened hard to examine the low, coarse texture Pepper’s voice took on at moments of unusual sincerity. He committed the sound to memory for later comparison. Outwardly, he examined his breakfast and spoke quietly and matter-of-factly. “He’s turning away from the morals you and he once shared. You’re losing the man you knew.” 

“No,” Pepper said firmly, and Loki’s eyes snapped to her. “I’m just afraid. I’m just - I just think it might kill him to carry any more guilt than he does already.” She opened the door to leave. 

_Round one goes to you,_ Loki thought with the beginnings of real admiration, _for understanding your own fear well enough that I can no longer play on it._

Aloud, he began the second round before the door could close behind her. “And if I tell you all that Stark wants to know, the secret advantage Fury keeps up his sleeve, what happens to me then? Are you so certain Stark wouldn’t kill me anyway, for the inconvenience of my continued life?” 

Pepper stopped. “Of course he wouldn’t.” She turned around and walked back into the room, and now her demeanor was all softness and comfort. “Loki, you _can_ tell us. We would offer you protection from SHIELD. You would be safe.” 

Loki smiled wryly and his eyebrows tilted up in a look of amusement, and maybe disbelief. 

Pepper sat, adjusting her hair as she settled in for a conversation. She was looking Loki in the eyes steadily, silently begging him to feel safe and unthreatened. 

He didn’t believe for a moment that he was safe, nor did being threatened particularly bother him. And Loki of all people was perfectly aware of when he was being manipulated. 

But emotions were mutinous things, and awareness was not the same as invincibility. There was something steadying in Pepper’s gaze. The warmth she exuded went a little way to fill a hunger in Loki that, as a rule, he despised too much to acknowledge. A hunger for a home that no longer existed, or that was no longer his, or that had never really been his to start with. 

“You really are startlingly lovely,” Loki said. The words were meant to charm, but they came out true and he looked away, feigning unconcern. “Rare to find such a soft beauty in a woman who isn’t also painfully stupid.” 

“Well, thank you.” Pepper pretended to accept the compliment with the same sweet, demure tone of a polite child receiving an unwanted Christmas present. Loki felt a sour taste in his mouth. 

He chose his next words more carefully, and smiled unkindly as he spoke them. “You might be even more lovely I think, if you did not constantly bend for someone who thinks he stands above you. Who are you, I wonder, when you step out from under Stark’s shadow?” 

Pepper’s face reddened slightly at the accuracy of the barb, but she recovered with a look of polite, caustic professionalism. “And how did that go for you when you stepped out from under Thor’s? Oh right, you work for SHIELD now. I suppose you didn’t, really.” 

Loki worked his jaw in annoyance. “I aid Fury for my own reasons.” 

“Of course. Just like everyone else he uses.” 

“He can himself prove useful at times.” 

“And what do _you_ use _him_ for?” 

Loki considered, and said, “To save worlds.” 

It had the desired effect of turning some of her antagonism to curiosity. “Which worlds?” 

Loki changed the subject. “Now I have a question: Why do you help him? Stark. What does he give you in exchange for your loyalty?” 

Pepper smiled wryly and shook her head. “It’s not exactly an exchange.” 

“Then he gives you nothing?” 

“I didn’t say that.” 

“It’s a simple question. No one loves without purpose, and he clearly makes use of you. What do _you_ use _him_ for?” 

Pepper raised her eyebrows and said dryly, “Well, I don’t see how _that’s_ any of your business.” 

“ _Don’t_ insult us both by implying that it’s only a matter of sex. You only wish I were that gullible, and _I_ only wish _you_ were that seducible. You’re helping the man to make himself a king. What makes you so certain you want to live in a world _he_ rules?” 

“He’s not going to be a _king.”_

“Is _that_ what you tell yourself?” Loki snorted lightly. “I apologize. I fear I overestimated you.” 

Pepper set her jaw and held his stare. “No. You’re _under_ estimating _him._ ” 

Loki lapsed into silence, considering her. This conversation was _not_ going as he had planned it. That in itself was a little refreshing. He’d meant to draw on her pity, but found himself showing off his wit instead. He meant to break her loyalty, but found it sturdier than planned. But that begged the question... 

“Such faith. What makes you believe in him so?” 

Pepper laughed, exasperated. “What’s to believe? I _know_ him. Tony doesn’t want to rule the world any more than _I_ want to be an _engineer._ He’ll lead sometimes, a little, because we’ll need him to. But the man can’t even run his own company. A _world_ is out of the question. And for _him_ that’s - it may not exactly be a good or bad thing, but it’s who he is.” 

Now here was something familiar to Loki. The annoyance and knowing in her voice brought to mind a thousand conversations with Thor, from a time when they still thought themselves brothers. That feeling of, _I know you as you do not know yourself. You may stand higher, but without me you would be lost_. Did this woman play the mastermind behind the great Tony Stark? 

But no. Loki had met the man, and had been duly impressed by his lunacy and genius. The alternative was more dizzying; that a man like Tony Stark knowingly _let_ himself be steered. A man as shrewd as Loki, and nearly as jaded, and he trusted this woman utterly. Not by absent-minded error, not out of careless trust, but because he believed her solid enough to rely on. 

It made Loki itch to prove him wrong, to sweep the world out from under Stark’s power-mad feet, and it made Loki begin to doubt that such a thing could be done at all. 

Impossibility made the accomplishment all the more tempting, and there were still some cracks in Pepper’s armor to play on, if he recalled correctly how hastily she had deflected his comment about Stark’s shadow. 

“Well,” he said carefully, “That answers the question of who Tony Stark is.” Loki leaned forward, fixed her with a look of intent fascination and repeated, “Who are _you?_ ” 

Pepper stood transfixed for a moment, caught in his gaze, and Loki carefully kept his expression searching as he stared back. _I have you now,_ he thought, _I know all too well what it is to lead from the shadows. It means being ignored often and dismissed more. It makes you desperate to be acknowledged. It makes you desperate to be known._

Pepper stiffened when she realized exactly how she had been pegged. She answered his question with a curt, “I’m the person who brought you breakfast,” and walked out, leaving Loki alone with his untouched meal. 

.:.

It was one a.m. and the bedroom was still lit. Pepper and Tony had theoretically gone to bed several hours ago, but had both agreed to “just finish up a few things” before turning off the light, and were thus hard at work sitting atop the bed covers, bent over their Stark Pads. Pepper wasn’t entirely sure Tony hadn't devolved to playing Angry Birds by now, but he’d designed his interface with the nanite blueprints in such a way that it was hard to tell the difference at a glance. 

Prompted either by something on the screen or by an incomprehensible passing thought, Tony abruptly said, “Loki, huh? Fill me in. What’s up with our newfound Viking god infestation?” 

Pepper set her tablet on the bedside table and complied. “Loki is an alien from a planet called Asgard. Apparently the old Norse gods were based on real people who actually lived there. Or _live_ there, I mean. Present tense. So anyway, in May of 2010, Thor - that’s Loki’s brother - showed up in New Mexico. Loki tried to kill him… there were some civilian casualties.” She grimaced. “And then this year, he and Thor were both involved in the Tesseract incident, but that time they fought together.” 

“They stole it?” 

“Well, Loki stole it and then gave it back. Then he and Thor helped SHIELD fight off an army that was using it to invade Earth.” 

“Oh-kay… so whose side is he on?” 

“Right now he’s a SHIELD agent.” 

“Not exactly an answer. Any idea _why_ he’s a SHIELD agent?” 

“Nope.” 

“Well, what did he say when you asked him?” Tony’s inflection implied that if in fact she _hadn’t_ asked this, there was something a little bit wrong with her brain. 

“He mentioned something about using Fury to save worlds. I don’t think I can get a straight answer out of him, though.” Pepper shrugged. “He has his own agenda and he’s a really good liar. I think it’s dangerous to corner him. When this is all over we can send him away with a smile and a gift basket and hope he stays out of our hair.” 

“You don’t think he’ll hold a grudge at us for locking him up?” 

Pepper thought. Surprised at her own certainty, she said, “No. I don’t.” 

“Huh. Too bad we’ll never find out.” 

Pepper looked at Tony and spoke in a tone too flat to sound like a question. “What do you mean.” 

Tony set aside his own tablet as conversation overtook his attention. “Well, I promised I’d do terrible things to him if he didn’t tell me what I wanted to know. Now I just have to think of something terrible. I’m tempted to go really classic, you know? Like, _vat of hungry sharks_ classic.” 

Pepper closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. “Tony...” 

“I’m honestly not sure who would _win,_ you know? I mean, Loki, or the sharks? There’s a certain romance in the uncertainty.” 

“ _Tony..._ ” 

“But then there’s all sorts of options in the range of _gruesome science experiment._ I guess the shark thing might qualify for that in a really unrigorous sort of way.” 

“Tony, for the love of god, _shut up!_ ” But it was too late. She was already imagining Loki, terrified and struggling for breath, surrounded, with blood spilling into the water and nowhere to turn. 

The funny thing was that even in her nightmarish imagination, she couldn’t imagine Loki _losing._ Ultimately, the sharks would be mince and Loki would come away bloodied and out for blood. And Tony might finally succeed in getting himself killed. 

Even if Loki did come out beaten, even if Tony killed him or broke him in some way, Tony would have tortured someone. Normally that would already be giving him pause. 

But Tony had been different these past few days. His conversation with Loki had brought something out in him, a kind of recklessness that made him want to win more than he wanted the moral high ground. And once it ran its course, Tony would realize that he had become what he had been trying to fight. 

Again. 

It would end badly either way. 

Now Tony was looking at her, worried, trying to puzzle out what he had said to distress her so much. “The shark tank idea is out, I _swear._ ” 

“Tony, since when do we torture people?” 

“Oh.” Confusion turned to comprehension, but the worry in Tony’s eyes didn’t ease. “We. We don’t.” But he said it like an offering, like he would _make_ it true for her sake. 

“We don’t torture people.” Pepper nodded. “Do _you_?” 

“Maybe.” 

“ _Have_ you?” 

“No.” 

“But you would.” 

He didn’t answer. It was silence, and it was a rigid silence, menacing, like every kind of terror lay between Tony and the task of breaking it. 

So, naturally, Pepper asked him to face every kind of terror. “Tony, what are you thinking? This time - this is one of those times when you need to tell me.” 

Tony nodded, and spoke haltingly as he searched for words. “There is nothing... that I would not do... to protect you. And that’s the problem. Sooner or later, it’s gonna come down to that. I’m gonna make that call and put you ahead of everything that _should_ matter.” He looked at her. “And then you will hate me.” 

Pepper leaned over and kissed him, deep and slow, all at once rewarding his honesty and denying that his words were true. 

She pulled back and cradled his cheek in her hand. “I won’t. Not for that. Tony, I only start to hate you when I’m scared you’re going to self-destruct. And if you hurt someone the same way that you were hurt, then you _will_ self-destruct. You’re going to hate _yourself_. And then you’re gonna push me away.” Tony started to speak, but Pepper shushed him. “I know. I know you don’t think you will, but you _will._ ” 

Tony turned his face out of her hand to look down and think. “That could be,” he admitted. 

“You have to be able to live with _yourself._ Okay? Because _I need_ you to be able to live with yourself. Don’t do anything that could jeopardize that.” 

He nodded. 

“Promise me.” 

“I can’t.” He shrugged apologetically, an abrupt rise and fall of his shoulders. 

Pepper covered her face with both hands, exasperated. “ _Tony_ \--” 

“No but really, I _can’t._ Because -- It’s catch twenty-two. I couldn’t live with myself if I let you get hurt.” 

.:.

Loki had waited longer this time. His trousers and and what had been a crisp white shirt were now wrinkled with wear. Days on end with only the walls for company, and occasionally the less interesting company of the tower security guards. 

He had long since memorized the schedules the guard kept. So when for the first time in days the door opened out of schedule, the whole of Loki’s awareness snapped to the person on the other side. 

Pepper walked in briskly and immediately started pacing. Dressed in a business suit, hair ironed straight, her appearance was immaculate. 

Taking in her put-together state, the tightness in her stride and the subtle distribution of makeup around her eyes, Loki inferred conclusively that she’d again been losing sleep. And whatever thoughts had fueled her insomnia were still worrying at her now. This was the opposite of the calm, settled woman Loki had met the other day. Her mood now was frayed and sharp and very nearly terrifying. She spun abruptly on her heel each time she approached a wall and Loki’s eyes followed the way her hair rippled smoothly with the violent motions. 

“I just need to know _one_ thing,” she said, still pacing. “ _About_ this secret. Whatever it is you’re keeping from Tony. Is it a threat to me?” She stopped and faced Loki, waiting for an answer. 

Loki stared at her, nonplussed. “To you? Not to Stark, but to _you?_ ” It didn’t compute. From everything he knew about her, she should be more worried about Tony than herself. 

She nodded shortly. “Exactly. Am I in danger?” 

“I...” Loki crossed his arms and shifted his shoulders back, uncomfortable and at a rare loss for words. He hadn’t prepared for this question. The notion of putting Pepper in harm’s way was… off-putting. 

Stomach-turning. 

Certainly, the universe would twist in revulsion if anyone dared harm her. It was a difficult thing to contemplate. 

Nearly as troubling as that was Loki’s realization that he _cared_. The notion of seeing this woman harmed was personally offensive to him, not just an objective horror for him to blandly observe in passing. 

Where had that come from? The universe could twist as it may; what business was that of Loki’s? 

The silence was getting long, and Loki had no interest in answering Pepper’s question. A bit late to re-direct, but he could try. “The other day you seemed concerned only with Stark. Why the sudden care for your own well being?” 

And as he expected, Pepper wasn’t a bit deterred. “Just tell me.” 

Her voice brokered no opposition, and Loki fought himself, sorely tempted to give her a straight answer. He pulled himself together and gave her the illusion of a straight answer. His eyebrows drew together as he chose his words with care. “Of _course_ SHIELD is a threat to you. So, then, is any asset they have at their command.” _Except me_. 

Loki resisted the urge to roll up his sleeves or hunch his shoulders or give any fidgeting sign of how much his thoughts troubled him. _Why_ not him? Why did the idea of Pepper coming to harm disgust him this much? 

Pepper stood very still while she considered Loki’s words. “So that’s it,” she said quietly. Her eyes closed in sad resignation. “There’s nothing I can do.” 

Loki tilted his head curiously. “And what are you _trying_ to do?” Was it her own safety she was agonizing over, or Stark’s? Or Loki’s? His plan, after all, was to make her worry for him. It was perfectly reasonable for him to feel a rush of hope at the idea that _he_ was the one she was concerned over. A desire surely unrelated to the revulsion he felt at imagining her in danger. 

He watched her face carefully for a reaction as he voiced his guess. “Looking for an out? An excuse to beg Stark for mercy on my behalf? Afraid of what he may do to me, but more afraid to defy him?” And then the opposite guess, watching for shame or a spark of defensive anger. “Or is it that you really are selfish enough to care more for your fate than for his? I very much doubt it. You’re far too _good_ for that. You’re far too good for _him_ , really,” he added as an afterthought, and inwardly kicked himself for it. 

Pepper lifted her eyebrows and gave him a long look, pretty and sweet and cold beneath, patience worn thin by his less subtle attempts to parse her motives. “Why thank you, Loki. Y’know I -- I _appreciate_ your opinion on my love life.” She nodded slightly with the words, adding an edge of sarcastic emphasis. “Really. I’m gonna go now. I hope you enjoy the rest of your stay here.” 

“It must be terrible,” Loki said, unconcerned, before she could move to leave. “...Whatever Stark has in mind for me. If you’re _so hesitant_ to let me alone to my fate.” 

Pepper looked briefly at the ceiling as she considered her reply, and whether to stay and reply at all. She was angry with Loki, angry with his games and his impertinence. And she worried for him, worried more the more she knew him, as her aggravation with him turned into the fond and familiar sort. 

Loki was _playing_ with that worry, belittling it by using it against her. Well, two could play at that game, and Pepper folded her hands in front of her waist, all courtesy and forced ease. “I always was the one to take a cricket outside before anyone crushed it,” she confessed. Then pressed her mouth into a mock-thoughtful line and added cheerfully, “I guess I have a habit of feeling sorry for insects that crawl in where they aren’t wanted.” 

Loki’s mouth twisted as he smothered a smile of genuine amusement at the veiled insult. Never able to resist this particular game, he replied in kind. “I had understood insects to be delicate and short-lived creatures that crawl the earth. And I must say, Miss Potts, that _you_ are uncommonly lovely as such.” 

“Is that so?” She spoke flatly, but there was a spark of suppressed humor there. “Is this how you talk to all the women you want to seduce?” 

At the disbelief in her tone, Loki’s amusement visibly grew. “You don’t think my interest in you is genuine?” 

“I don’t think anything about you is genuine,” Pepper said, and was surprised to hear the dry affection in her own voice. 

He lifted his forearms to flourish a conceding shrug, as if even the hands he gestured with were irrefutable evidence of her point. He spoke with a dry good humor that echoed hers. “Yet I have, on occasion, been known to tell a truth. However incidentally.” 

“Oh really? When do you tell the truth?” she challenged. 

With that, the game lost its levity, because her words were a clear opening. A chance for Loki to speak and be believed, or at least reveal which of his lies he most desperately wanted her to believe. 

He considered that chance for a long time, and finally declined it. “When it helps me.” Then, just for fun, he told her something she _wouldn’t_ believe. “Here’s one truth for you. You _will_ defy Stark and aid me in escaping this place.” 

Pepper raised one eyebrow. “Wishful thinking much? You can’t already know that.” 

“But I can. I know my place, darling. I convince. I persuade.” His words now carried chilling weight. The weave of reality held a firm pattern, and Loki only described his role as it was always woven and bound. “I am Loki, shapeshifter in body and mind, and the moment I perceive exactly what you want, I will easily and skillfully become it.” 

“You’re that desperate,” Pepper surmised flatly. “What if you never understand what I want?” 

A twisted, knowing smile, and a glance that briefly focused far beyond the walls of Loki’s current cell. “Then I will go mad.” 

Pepper shook her head. “That’s pretty ridiculous.” 

“More ridiculous than you aiding that villainous lover of yours?” 

Her eyes narrowed. “He’s a good man - ” 

“He’s more unbalanced than I.” 

“ - and he’s _not_ villainous.” 

“Just _powerful, spoiled, selfish_ \- ” 

“He’s all I have!” Pepper cut in, snapping her mouth shut as she immediately regretted the words. 

Loki’s head tilted to the side and back, like an artist leaning away to admire his work from a more coherent distance. “You’re that desperate.” 

Pepper opened her mouth and worked her jaw briefly until she landed on words to express her aggravation. “And you’re… _what?_ Trying to seduce me? To make me fall for you? Good luck. You can’t possibly think it will work. You’re - that’s _sick._ And dishonest. And disgusting.” 

Loki leaned forward, and though his voice stayed soft and even, it was somehow less controlled when he spoke. “If you are so repulsed by me, why come visit me in prison? To _save_ me? This man who has your unwavering loyalty -- why leave his side?” An odd rage grew in his words as he continued, “You _wanted_ your place with him. You’re trapped _exactly_ where you wished to be. And if allies and certainties fall away from you like sand, so be it. If you learn that you would rip yourself apart in service to someone else’s great and terrible plans, so be it. If your mind and heart turn against each other, don’t blame me for what you brought on _yourself._ You’re all too eager to fall without my help.” 

“I am _not_ falling for - ” Pepper frowned. “Why are _you_ angry with _me?_ ” 

“‘Oh, why rebuke you him that loves you so?’” Loki quoted with resentful mockery. 

Calming now, Pepper shook her head and muttered frankly, “You don’t love people.” 

Of all things, she hadn’t intended _those_ words to cut deep, but the unthinking certainty behind them hit the man before her with startling, shattering force. 

A quiet, “ _What?_ ” A flicker, a startled exhale and a rupture in Loki’s mask. Loki’s eyes were always cold as a rule, forbidding black set in green stroma, but _this_ … this was the surface breaking, and the creature that Pepper glimpsed through the cracks was something else entirely. Something she’d seen traces and hints of in all their interactions, never quite imagining the implications. Tragic and beautiful, terrified and broken and inherently lovable. 

But it was only a snatch of a glimpse, and Pepper wasn’t sure _what_ she had seen, because an instant later Loki’s face was masked and hard and uncompromising. 

“Explain,” he said, low and brittle. 

Pepper frowned and brushed back a lock of her hair, gathering her thoughts. “I-it’s just, what…” She took a breath. “...because of what you said the other day. When you were asking about me and Tony, you said that no one loves without a purpose. If you really believed that... People who have been in any kind of love know that it doesn’t make sense. It’s anything _but_ rational. Caring about people makes you insane.” Pepper found the chair and sat slowly, looking hard at Loki. “But -- I’m sorry. I think you actually knew that too.” 

Loki didn’t reply, but he did watch her, guarded and mild, and this time Pepper stared back. They were sizing each other up a second time, but now the enmity was set aside. The silence was cautious, tense but nearly companionable. Whether they liked it or not, a certain measure of understanding had passed between them, and it was the kind of understanding of which lifelong friendships and undying feuds were made. Fierce love and fierce hatred were just two sides of the coin they’d accidentally traded in. Discomfort for discomfort, insight for insight. 

Pepper spoke, and her voice had that gravelly, honest quality Loki had once committed to memory. “The reason I asked what I did… I think if I could convince Tony that you and your secrets aren’t dangerous to me, he’ll leave you alone until this is over. And then he’ll let you go.” 

And that was no help to him at all. Nor was the concern in her voice, which held a medicinal sting and sank into him too readily through broken walls. Still recovering from her earlier words, Loki was only just realizing how badly he’d been thrown off balance, much like first discovering the depth of a wound after the healer started to work, or finding the structural damage that revealed itself only when the flood waters drained away. 

In that odd moment of desolation when she had missed the mark completely, he’d felt the insult too acutely for reason. Like loss. Like another home had been torn away. And he’d been too relieved for reason when Pepper realized her mistake and rescinded the words. 

Studying the sight before him, this woman full of soft glow and hard zeal and just now a sort of knowing caution, Loki began to take in the full gravity of his situation, seeing how catastrophically his plans had spun off their axis. He was fantastically doomed. 

Loki set out to craft his next lie and found himself telling a half-truth instead. “You want assurance of your safety. I’m afraid I can’t assure you of any such thing, much as I look forward to walking free of this place.” 

Pepper nodded, and there was a slight rush to the motion, the hurry to be finished hearing disappointing news she already knew. She gave him a look that was compassionate and calmly despairing. “I guess you’re probably not the type to like being put in a cage.” 

“Is anyone?” Loki deflected. But the _plan_ was play on her sympathy, and he forced himself to be a little more honest. “But no, it’s not that. Cages, I tolerate well enough. What’s maddening is this tower that has no magic. Take a musician, put him in a place where there is no music, where even his own songs never reach his ears, and see how he fares.” 

“It’s that bad?” 

“Magic is the greater part of all the knowledge I have. A mage without his craft may as well be without his hands.” Loki lapsed into quiet, and the look on his face as he set his jaw and refused to look at her said more of what the lack of his magic was doing to him than his words did. That look spoke of unfinished thoughts and half-formed magics in his mind, ideas cramped and tripping over themselves with painful jerks and unrealized destinies. An irritation and frustration that built and built with time and stifling simplicity and became something more like despair. 

“It’s like a mechanic without metal,” Pepper mused. “I think I see.” She tried to catch Loki’s eyes. 

Unwisely, he let her, the living green of his eyes trying for defiance and refusal, achieving anything but. Again, Pepper felt that tug, a glimpse through the hazardous cracks in his soul. Flashes of scalding intelligence, and a child lost in the cold. More real this time, more than a glimpse. She saw Loki. Impossible not to. 

Pepper closed her eyes tightly and took another steadying breath. She stood, turned, and made for the door. “I shouldn’t be here. There is no reason for me to be here.” 

“Will you always do this?” Loki asked. His voice was toneless, but currents of longing and bitter fear ran hard below the surface, threatening to drag them both under. “Will you always walk away just as one of us begins to see into the other?” 

Pepper paused in the doorway, and forcefully remembered her commitments, remembered Tony, remembered that she didn’t trust Loki any more now than she had an hour ago. “Yes, I will,” she concluded shakily. She gathered her willpower and kept walking. 

.:.

The trek to her office was eternal and too fast, distracted as she was by uncertainty and panic. She remembered none of it when she found herself leaning over the familiar woodgrains of her own desk, staring down at them as if they held answers or friendly advice. 

“Jarvis...” she called weakly. 

“Yes, Miss Potts?” Jarvis replied, and -- bless his expertly coded heart -- there was no hint of judgement in his voice. Only sympathy and worry, and enough formal distance to let her ask what she needed to ask next. 

“Are you going to tell Tony about this?” She lost her voice a little on that last word. “About me and Loki?” 

A pause, and Jarvis said, “If he decides to view the tapes of your and Loki’s conversations, I will of course do as he asks. Otherwise, _telling him_ is a task I leave to you, to do at your discretion.” 

Pepper let out a long breath and closed her eyes, relieved, resigned, and terrified. “Thank you, Jarvis,” she whispered. 

.:.

It might have been hours before she finally pulled herself together. At length, she checked her email and voicemail. There was a message from Happy that made her smile. He was head of security at the Malibu tower now, and she didn’t see much of him when she was out of town. 

She ran a few errands, and eventually worked up the courage to track down Tony and poke her head into the lab he was working in. 

Tony was, for whatever reason, pouring laundry detergent into a petri dish. “Jarvis, any problems?” he asked. 

“The nanites are displaying no adverse reaction to the bleach, the water or the surfactants, sir. I believe we can call this experiment a success.” 

Tony screwed the lid back onto the detergent. “Could if there was time, but there’s too much to do! What’s next? Oh, hey Pep. Didn’t see you. What’s up?” 

Pepper stepped properly into the room. “Happy called. He says taking over the world is a dumb move and you need to stop watching ‘Pinky and the Brain’ reruns. But he’s on our side.” 

“Excellent.” Tony plugged a cord into the wall, looked for a place to rest the slack, gave up, and handed it to Pepper. “Um, hold this. Some Alpha test got lost on the floor last week and I don’t want them chewing through it.” 

Pepper held the cord as directed. “They got _loose_?” 

“It’s a temporary setback. I overdid the collective sentience programing and… they got a little shy. I just have to convince them to crawl back into the dish. I’ll figure it out eventually. I -- uh-oh.” With that, Tony returned to his work. 

Pepper kept hold of the wire and just watched him for a while. In a way, Tony was the same as Loki, with his own broken, endearing heart that made it impossible not to love him past all his vices. Why couldn’t she choose just one? Tony was her oldest friend. Her lover. She had barely met Loki. 

But having only just met, she already _knew_ him. She had seen to the core of him, and he to her. 

Her heart twisted and strained at the impossible choice. Two wonderful, terrible men. Two exquisite, breathtaking minds, but they were such _different_ minds. Two lost children, but they were such _different_ children. Impossible to choose one over the other. It made her breath sting in her chest to think about leaving either to wander alone. 

“Pepper, you okay? What’s wrong?” 

Pepper blinked when she realized Tony had asked her a question. “Nothing. _Nothing._ I just… Nothing.” 

Tony gave her a long, searching look, then shrugged believingly and went back to his work. “Okay. Unplug that and roll it up, would you?” 

.:.

The next day Pepper entered Loki’s room and stood opposite him, arms crossed. There were no greetings this time, no opening rounds. Pepper just waited expectantly, and when met with silence, she said, “Whatever you’ve been keeping from us, just tell it to me.” 

Loki opened his mouth to do so, and forced himself to close it again. Instead he shook his head, smiled a bit and said, “You couldn’t possibly think it would be that easy.” 

“Oh, I _COULDN’T_?!” Pepper shouted, and Loki winced. She advanced toward him and kept right on. “I am _tired_ of this stupid game, and I am _tired_ of waiting for you and Tony to rip each other’s throats out, and I am _tired_ of watching you _sit_ here pretending Tony has all the power, while you dangle some mysterious secret in front of us like a carrot on a stick!” 

“I have no intention of --” 

“And, no, you know what? Everything you’ve said to me so far has been totally inappropriate! You’d like to _seduce me_?! You think I’m _lovely_?! You think Tony isn’t _good_ enough for me?! Well, Loki, _good_ isn’t really _your_ strong point either. You do _not_ get to say those things to me. You do _not_ get to come into my life and sweep me off my feet. I have responsibilities! I have commitments!” 

“And what chance do _I_ have of sweeping you off your feet?” Loki scoffed. 

“Don’t. Don’t even ask.” She shook her head forbiddingly, even while Loki stood and walked toward her. “You know perfectly well that I have feelings for you. And you know perfectly well that every moment you go without telling Tony what he wants to know, you’re making me choose between him and you. Well, I didn’t ask for that!” Pepper stopped, wiped a hand against her cheek and found that it came away smudged with tears and eyeliner. 

She snorted, and continued quietly but no less angrily. “I didn’t ask for any of this. I didn’t ask to understand you. I didn’t ask to care about you. I _certainly_ didn’t ask _you_ to care about _me_. So just… Just _stop,_ okay?” 

Loki raised a hand toward her, realized there was a wall of plastic between them, and fisted his hand in bitter frustration. “I _can’t_.” 

Pepper turned and stalked from the room, still furious. 

It was only after she left that Loki noticed his own face was wet too. Swearing, he dragged his hands across his face and through his hair in one helpless gesture. As promised, he had parsed out what she wanted, and somehow it was _him,_ without illusion or distortion. That knowledge was laughably useless to him. He slumped down against the back wall of his cell, having nothing to do but stare daggers at the very universe, in all its sick humor. 

.:.

“Sir, I’ve found something,” Jarvis said to Tony, interrupting the inventor’s finishing touches on his nanites. “Director Fury had a covert conversation mentioning you at a diner this morning, unaware that a nearby customer was recording a video. The resulting youtube post shows a certain lack of cinematographic talent, but I’ve managed to extract a few of Fury’s words from the background.” 

Tony looked up with interest. “Play on.” 

The sound recording was a little crackly, but it was definitely Fury’s voice. “-- calling in the third favor to have Potts brought in. Stark should be more cooperative after that. Of course, that’s only an option if we see follow-through on the second --” 

The recording stopped there and Jarvis said, “That’s all there is, sir.” 

“So they’re planning to use Pepper to get to me,” Tony surmised blandly, looking off into space as he processed the change in circumstances. “I was right. If they think they can pull that off, they do have something going for them I don’t know about.” 

Then Tony jumped up from his chair and started toward the elevator. “Jarvis, send our guest up to my penthouse again. I have a conversation to finish. And a god that’s going to be a lot less godly when I’m through with him.” 

.:.

Tony was waiting in his penthouse by the time Loki arrived. The process of moving the super-strong god was chancy, but the guards managed to cuff Loki securely to his metal chair without incident. At Tony’s bidding they gave the key to Pepper, who placed it in one of the shallow pockets of her skirt, and the guards left the room. Only Tony, Pepper, and Loki remained. 

Tony walked toward Loki, who gestured his bound hands in series of overt attempts at magic. The mad inventor laughed at Loki’s obvious irritation as the walls pulled in the magic with ease. 

“How’s captivity treating you?” Tony inquired. 

Loki’s eyes flitted to Pepper. “Ambivalently. But I have a suspicion that for better or for worse, I won’t be a captive here much longer.” 

“Perceptive,” Tony praised. “Feel like spilling any juicy secrets about SHIELD while you’re still here?” 

“I know none,” Loki said with blatant insincerity. 

Stopping to stand a few feet in front of the bound god, Tony let his head fall forward slightly as he snorted, a much less sincere sign of humor. “Very funny. I guess you’ve noticed that I’m not actually that big on torturing or killing people.” He sighed heavily through his nose in a show of self-disappointment. “We all have our flaws. Long story short, I’ve been trying to think of a humane way to threaten you. And I’ve found something I really like. It’s non-lethal. ...I _think_. It’s painless. It’s -- _well_ \-- it’s _almost_ humane.” 

Loki blinked and smothered the beginnings of a frown, the first faint sign of real worry Tony had seen from him. The god had maintained such poise until this moment, either annoyed or brilliant and unflappable in the face of all Tony’s threats, and even now the prisoner’s expression was back to mild boredom, still waters without the faintest lingering ripple. 

But there had been that minute twitch of his eyebrows, and Tony felt a little thrill at having Loki even this much on edge. “Last time you were up here, I took some brain scans.” He gestured for Jarvis to bring up a holographic screen between them, and cross-sections of two brains appeared, colored much in the style of FMRI findings. “Been comparing them with a few I took of Dr. Strange, and I have some theories about what makes a man able to do magic. Also got a working theory about how to focus certain frequencies at certain parts of a brain to make a man _not_ able to do magic. Ever again. Got it all set up. I could do it in here right now. All I need is a test subject.” He looked at Loki significantly. 

There was a barely-perceptible tensing in Loki’s jaw, no other reaction. 

Tony slid the display off to his left on one abrupt gesture. “Here’s the thing. If I send you back to Fury as is and you keep working for him, you’ve got all this magic on your side… That could cause a problem for me. Don’t worry, I’m not going to do anything gruesome. I’m just going to take your powers away.” He snapped his fingers. “No more tricks and transmogrification. No more hocus pocus. Just plain old Loki.” 

Pepper made a weak, strangled noise. 

Distracted from his monologue, Tony shot her a questioning look. “Are you getting sick again?” 

Pepper shook her head, pulling her expression back to something composed. _A mage without his craft may as well be without his hands,_ Loki had said. But he’d been manipulating her then, was still manipulating them both, so she fought down the wave of sick horror at what Tony was suggesting and kept her peace. 

Still looking to her with mild concern, Tony persisted, “Sound like a cough. Can I get you anything? Tangerine coconut water? Kam Wo Tea? Fresh garlic on toast?” 

“I’m fine,” she lied in a strained voice. 

“You sure?” Tony shrugged and turned his attention back to Loki. “So what do you say, Cuckoo’s Nest? How’s this gonna end for you?” 

Loki shifted his head slightly from side to side as if weighing his options. “I could, of course, make something up. A lie just for you, to make believe I’m cooperating.” 

“I could send you back to your cell to think it over, if you’re scared,” Tony shot back. “I can’t figure why you’re not playing that game already. All those days in my tower, I’d think you’d have a few good lies on hand. Need more time alone to cook them up?” 

“ _No,_ ” Loki said sharply. “No,” he continued after a breath, tone still nearly as sharp and full of hard-edged impatience. “My answer won’t change with time, and I don’t intend to _sit_ any longer in that cell and contemplate my impending fate.” 

“You could just _talk_ to me,” Tony implored, bending his knees a little with the weight of mostly-mock concern. “Tell me what’s up. Avoid the whole _terrible impending fate_ part.” 

Loki pulled in his top lip to lick it thoughtfully, the absent gesture of a creative genius in deep concentration, as he parsed out the inner workings and squeamish undertones in the the inventor’s words. “Ah, but I don’t think you _will_ remove my magic.” 

Tony’s mouth fell open a little, and the corners of his lips quirked with the faintly horrified smile of a man dared to do the unthinkable, and unwilling to turn down the dare. He moved his hand back to the glowing mid-air computer display, summoned an ominous round button made of red light, and let his hand hover over it thoughtfully. “I have the technology. And I’m not bluffing.” 

Loki’s eyes slid to the button, then back to Tony. The god spoke intently. “True, but I’m willing to wager that when the moment comes, the better part of yourself won’t allow you to follow through on your threat.” 

“You’re gonna lose that wager,” Tony warned. 

“Then prove it.” 

Tony stepped unwisely close to Loki and leaned down, resting one hand on the back of Loki’s chair. The holographic button followed him to stay within easy reach. Face just inches from the god’s, Tony grinned flirtatiously and shrugged. “There might be some side effects. Brain damage… death…” 

Loki grinned to match him, grim and terrified and accepting the challenge. “Now you’re just stalling.” 

Tony stood up straight. “You really don’t think I’ll do it, huh?” 

Loki glanced at Pepper again. “I choose to assume your conscience will stop you.” 

“It won’t.” 

“I’ll see for myself.” 

“Sucks to be you,” Tony concluded, and moved his hand decisively toward the button. 

“Stop!” Pepper ran forward and seized his wrist. She brought his hand to a standstill just short of its destination, and Tony widened his eyes at Pepper, startled and questioning. 

“Sir --” Jarvis started. 

“Not now, Jarvis,” Tony quelled. “Pepper, what’s up?” 

Pepper spoke in a panicked rush. “Tony, I don’t think you understand what you would be doing to him.” 

“Sir, I really think --” 

“ _Shut up,_ Jarvis,” Tony repeated. “Look, Pep, I’m doing the best I can to protect both of us here. I’m sorry if you don’t like it --” 

“No, Tony, you don’t understand!” Pepper let go of his wrist to spread her hands in a gesture of anxiety. “It’s more complicated than that. And I’m sorry. I’m _really_ sorry --” 

“Sir!” Jarvis repeated in panicked tones. 

“ _What?_ ” Tony and Pepper demanded of the AI in annoyed unison. 

“I’m afraid Loki is escaping.” 

“What?” Tony repeated, nonplussed, as they both looked to Loki’s chair and found it empty, then started scanning the room for him. 

Loki stood by the bar grinning widely, and between his teeth he held the key to his bonds, glinting silver. 

Tony looked to Pepper, who looked to her pocket, surprised to find the key missing. 

From the moment Pepper had rushed over to stop Tony, the key had been in easy biting distance of Loki where he was bound. The god must have maneuvered the key to his hands somehow to actually undo the cuffs, Tony reasoned, and put it between his teeth again just to show off. 

_That mouth is a very serious problem,_ Tony thought for a distracted moment as Loki removed the key from said mouth and placed it on the bar with a _clink._

“I believe I won that wager,” Loki said. 

Tony spread his hands forward indignantly. “Oh, _come on._ I _would_ have done it if Pepper hadn’t stopped me.” 

Loki crossed his arms and tilted his head. “I told you that you would be stopped by the better part of yourself. By your conscience. Was I wrong?” 

Tony considered the question, then dropped his arms and admitted defeat with a grudging but decisive, “No.” 

Jarvis spoke up. “The Mark X is on its way, sir.” 

“Oh good.” Tony looked pleased for a moment, then caught the smile curling on Loki’s face and held up a hand. “Jarvis, wait.” 

Loki feigned surprise. “Aren’t you going to call your armor to you? It’s the obvious course.” 

“Yeah, so you’ll have thought of it. I’m missing something. What am I missing?” Tony said it as much to himself as to Loki, frustrated at his own lack of clairvoyance. 

“Nothing. Summon your armor here and kill me. Of course, if I _have_ planned for that -- If I have spoken to your guards and persuaded them to alter your suit in some unpleasant way, well then, _not_ choosing the obvious course might just be very, very clever of you.” 

“They were under orders not to talk to you.” 

“They only had to listen,” Loki said serenely. 

“The suit’s fine,” Tony hypothesized. “You’re stalling.” 

“Am I?” The god’s eyes darkened just a bit. “Would you care for another wager? Don’t underestimate me again, Stark; it’s tedious.” 

Tony was thinking fast. Loki still had no magic. Tony could call his guards, the ones who hadn’t seen Loki. Bad plan, considering how well that had ended last time. Explosives? None on this floor. Super-powered allies? No, he didn’t have any of those. Maybe he could reprogram his nanites to feast on the flesh of gods. Too time-consuming. Death by brain-cell destroying frequencies? That was an option, but the plan needed tweaking and in the mean time... “Pepper, clear out.” 

“She won’t,” said Loki. 

Tony looked at Pepper and realized that she hadn’t moved. She was staring at both men, looking terrified. But not panicking, she’d be talking if she were panicking, so why was she still here? “Pepper, get the hell out of here. C’mon, move! ” 

“She won’t leave,” Loki insisted. “Miss Potts is afraid you and I will kill each other.” 

“Pepper I’ll be _fine._ Don’t listen to him.” 

“She can tell you’re lying. And she also knows full well that I’m no danger to _her._ ” 

Tony blinked and looked at Loki, some of his urgent panic fading to consternation. “Okay, _what?_ ” 

“Ah. You’ve not heard.” Loki paused, half sheepish, half mockingly sheepish. “Well. I’ve gone and fallen in love with your girlfriend. And… I rather _think_ she’s taken with me as well.” 

Tony snorted. 

Then he caught a glimpse of Pepper’s face, and saw the horror and the guilt and acknowledgement, there. She was looking at Loki with something very like betrayed trust as her hand came up reflexively to cover her mouth. 

Tony staggered on his feet, stricken. “Pepper?” His voice was much too small, never more a lost child than in this moment. 

How could Pepper be in love with Loki? It didn’t make sense, it couldn’t be true, it must be a trick. Or a nightmare. 

“Tony, I’m sorry.” Her hand fell away from her mouth as her eyes slid back to him. “I love _you_. I do. I just also… I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” 

Tony found his feet and rounded on Loki. “Loki, if you’ve put some sort of spell on her, so help me _god,_ I will kill you and run your corpse though a - ” But he stopped when he caught the look on the god’s face. 

Loki stood oblivious to Tony’s words, attention focused entirely on Pepper. The look of apology, of contorted, pained empathy on Loki’s face was something Tony doubted even the god of lies could fabricate. Loki glanced at Tony and snapped his expression to neutral, hiding the look as soon as Tony caught sight of it, but there it had been. 

Tony looked from Loki to Pepper, and back to Loki. “Fuck. I need a drink.” 

Having recovered his composure, Loki circled away from the bar as Tony approached it, and spoke blandly. “Interesting. You were lying the first two times you threatened my life. Not this time.” 

“At the time, I _liked_ you. Proves that even I can be wrong about people.” Tony winced at his own choice of words and poured himself a glass of scotch, downing it in one go and refilling it before leaving the bar. “Why shouldn’t I kill you again?” 

“Because it would break her heart.” 

“Seriously? Who in their right mind falls in love with someone like _you_?” 

Loki snorted quietly. “I could ask you the same.” He turned his eyes to Pepper. “But love isn’t blind, it’s _foolish_. It knows its own tragedy and runs reckless into it.” 

Loki stepped close to Pepper, staring hard at her features with a mix of longing and threat. He went to touch her face, but brushed his fingers across the space just short of her skin, as if he didn’t quite dare cross her, or didn’t quite trust himself not to hurt her. 

Pepper stared back wide-eyed and rigid, nothing in her expression showing permission to approach or desire to step away. 

Loki spared Tony a brief glance, then shifted all the force of his focus back to Pepper’s face. “Look at her. The sort of woman who will see that you aren’t truly a hero, see right to the worthless heart of you, and love you, for no reason save that it’s in her nature.” 

Loki pulled his hand away, seeming to suddenly remember where he was, and why. “And look at me. The sort of man who would _use_ that.” 

There was an explosion. 

Actually, three explosions in quick succession. The fire and destruction was minimal, but the blasts sent a series of jarring shock waves tearing through the room. 

When Tony got used to the feeling of his ears ringing and the room spinning, he realized just exactly where in the room the explosions had taken place, and how they matched up with the locations of devices in the walls that absorbed magical energy. _Had_ absorbed magical energy, before getting turned into shrapnel just now. “Oh, son of a-” 

Tony’s words were cut off by a spell, which wrapped around him and paralyzed most of his voluntary muscles. Breathing and eye movement, he retained, and his postural muscles held their tension, so Tony stood rooted to the spot and watched Loki stroll freely inside his house. Catching sight of a motionless Pepper, Tony was willing to guess that she was similarly stuck in her position. 

The dust was starting to settle, a thin layer of powdered drywall coating Tony’s tile floor. Larger lumps of wall and small scraps of metal lay clustered in parabolic trajectory patterns near the three holes that had been punched in his beautiful walls. Loki recovered his smile and gloated a bit. “Funny thing about absorbing magical energy by force: you can’t always destroy the spell in the process. Simple things, like a curse to trigger an explosion in the storage unit that holds the magic, can filter through. Have fun with that. And while we’re at it, perhaps I should confess: I’ve misled you. There is nothing at all wrong with your suit.” 

There was quite a lot that Tony would have said to that, were he able to speak. 

Loki summoned the holograms of Tony’s nanites into thin air. “Jarvis, if you do anything to hinder me collecting these plans, I will kill your master. I also _will_ know if you hide something else in these files.” 

It did not escape Tony’s notice that Loki seemed to have picked up on how to run his tech given a very short space of time, and only the briefest of demonstrations. The bastard was a fast learner. Nor did it escape his notice that when Loki had walked up to Pepper to gush about the love in his heart, the god had placed himself perfectly between her and any possible shrapnel from the nearest blast. He had protected her. 

Loki worked efficiently, copying the information onto a thumb drive, which he then pocketed as he strode toward the window. 

“Oh, and Stark,” Loki stopped to whisper in Tony’s ear, a puff of warm breath that definitely did _not_ make Tony’s knees weak, nope, not a bit. “The thing you were wondering, the reason they dare challenge you? It’s because _I_ still owe Fury a boon.” Loki’s index finger touched lightly and menacingly on the cloth over Tony’s arc reactor. “Be very careful where you put that heart of yours.” 

Outside Tony’s range of vision, Loki’s footsteps faded toward the landing pad outside and were gone. The grip of the god’s spellwork loosened and dissipated soon after. 

Tony stood perfectly still for three full seconds, and then drew a breath. “Jarvis, tell me you booby-trapped his drive somehow.” 

“No, sir. The risk of Loki carrying out his threat --” 

“HE WAS LYING!” Tony shouted with startling force. 

“I do apologize, sir,” Jarvis said in a small voice. 

Catching his breath, Tony looked around. His home looked a wreck. So did his girlfriend. The whole “god of disorder” thing was looking more apt by the minute. 

Could a man not just take over the world in peace anymore? Was that really too much to ask? 

“ _Tony,_ ” Pepper choked out. 

But Tony couldn’t. Couldn't take it in, couldn't face the reality of the last few minutes. Just couldn’t. Without acknowledging her, he strode across the room to the elevator, which was still sufficiently intact to take him to one of his labs. He stepped in and wordlessly pressed the down button. When he reached his destination, he locked the door behind him. 

It bothered him how this room hadn’t changed in the thirty-seven minutes since he’d left it to go and sort out the resident mischief god. His life was turned upside-down, but here in this room all was as it had been. The alpha tests scuttered shyly up against the far side of their dish as he passed. Tony sat heavily in an office chair and tapped at the air, opening a file for the latest round of TIDY designs. 

He honed them, and honed them some more, until they were something graceful and elegant and terrifying and benign. Thoughts circled in his head, reality trying to catch up to him, but he swatted away the thoughts like flies and refocused on his work. And still, they circled. Always coming back to the same thing. _I can’t lose Pepper._

Every once in a while he caught himself crying, used whatever cloth was near at hand to dry his face, and lost himself in work again. Circled again. _I can’t lose her._ But he couldn’t keep her either, he knew that. She deserved better. Not that Loki was better. _I can’t lose her._

“Sir,” Jarvis said, and Tony realized his AI had been trying to get his attention for… since Tony had gotten into the elevator. He’d sort of known that. “Sir, if you don’t let Pepper into the laboratory with the next two minutes, the chances of your relationship surviving are -” 

“Let her in.” 

The door opened to reveal Pepper, startled to suddenly be allowed entrance. Her eyes were red. So was her nose. She had been crying. _Over Loki?_ Tony wondered. 

He waited in his seat and stared down at his hands as Pepper walked in, heels not hitting the floor quite as steadily as they should. 

“It’s okay,” Tony lied once she was close. 

Pepper stopped. “W-what?” 

“If you want to leave me for him. It’s okay. Well it’s not _okay._ I mean, _I_ need you. You can’t leave. But you can. I mean, that’s your right. I don’t have... You-you should be happy. You deserve to be happy,” he managed, looking down at his fingers where they fiddled with nothing, wondering how he would get by without her, and if he would have to live the rest of his life with this ache in his chest that hurt so much more than long-broken ribs grinding against metal. 

“Oh, Tony.” Pepper’s voice was choked and angry, and he looked up to see that she was crying again. “You. Are. Such. An. _Idiot!_ ” She collapsed onto him, straddling him in his chair and wrapping her arms around his neck. “And I love you so much,” she added, crying into his shoulder and pulling closer. 

Confused, Tony wrapped his arms around her and waited for things to start making sense. 

He came to conclusion that Pepper didn’t plan on leaving him, and his brain began to work significantly better. His hand moved to form comforting circles in her back, and her sobs eased a little. 

Oddly, the next place his brain went to was Loki, and the way Loki’s voice had felt vibrating in his ear, which seemed a little wrong to be thinking about with Pepper curled up in his lap, but she was crying right now and that wasn’t very sexy, so... 

And then Tony made a cognitive leap, suddenly grasping the whole situation and the possibilities it implied, and he had to work not to laugh. 

But he kept himself composed, because he had some concept now of what it must have looked like to Pepper when he locked himself away down here, and yes, he really was an idiot, but he was pretty sure he could fix it if he didn’t screw things up any further first. 

He waited until her crying faded into an occasional hiccup, took her by the shoulders and pushed her back just far enough that he could look her in the eyes. _God, your face is a mess,_ he thought, and wisely didn’t say. 

“So let’s get this straight,” Tony said. “Loki is in love with you. You’re in love with Loki, _and_ me. I’m in love with you, and I kind of have a thing for Loki. There may not actually _be_ a problem here, unless one of you is dead set against polyamory, or Loki finds me really unattractive, which, let’s be realistic. Please.” 

Pepper gaped at him. 

Then she grinned and started laughing helplessly, as a person only can after crying halfway to exhaustion. 

She buried her face in his chest as her shoulders shook with mirth, and Tony leaned his head back and blew out a slow breath of relief, feeling as if he had narrowly escaped death, but a little more so.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will now confess my desire to have someone draw a picture of Loki grinning smugly with that key in his mouth, because I find the mental image far more intriguing than I should. Any takers?
> 
> Next chapter scheduled for Friday.


	3. Past the Turn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a planet changes hands.

SHIELD had managed, by a very specific set of miracles, to obtain the plans for the TIDY nanites. They immediately started formulating strategies to defend their technology from the onslaught, including a promising lead involving x-rays and other scanner-related waves that might cause the nanites to self-destruct. 

Those plans were entirely outdated ten hours later, when Tony finished production and implemented the project. The nanites were released right on schedule, and none of SHIELD’s countermeasures worked. It was about forty-eight hours before the weapons of the world were non-functional, and another week before said weapons were completely beyond repair. 

The worldwide demand for knives, swords, bows and arrows went through the roof, those being weapons the nanites would spare. Demolition and mining projects ground to a halt due to a sudden lack of powerful explosive devices. 

People got unpleasantly creative with what was left: construction vehicles and power tools and the like. But there was no denying that overall, the rate of violent deaths took a nosedive. Anywhere that large scale violence did break out, Iron Man showed up to sort it out, so there was nothing that resembled war. 

It became apparent within the fortnight that there was a new world order, and that Tony Stark was at the top of it. The realization was met by the masses with a general sense of resigned discomfort, and lot of jokes about how the new world order looked an awful lot like the old world order. 

But there were some who were not ready to surrender the world so easily, and Nick Fury was one of them. 

Loki once again lounged in Fury’s office at SHIELD headquarters while his employer paced in front of him and weighed the possibilities at hand. “One option we’re considering in bringing in Pepper Potts. Is that something you can do?” 

Loki shook his head and sat back on his chair with a bored sigh. An impressive act on his part, since the prospect of being oath-bound to kidnap Pepper was more than a little horrifying. “Director, I think it’s time you stopped underestimating my abilities.” 

Fury turned to eye him sharply. “What do you mean?” 

“You only have one favor left. Use it. Stop thinking about means, and start thinking about ends.” 

“Can you bring in Stark?” 

By the _bloody wrist of Tyr,_ Pepper would never forgive him for _that._ Loki shook his head at Fury, patronizingly slow. “Still a means. What do you hope to achieve?” 

Fury turned away from Loki and placed a hand on his desk. “Long term, I want Stark off the seat of power and someone in his place who won’t screw it up. I’ve got a man in mind; a good leader.” 

Loki leaned forward. “Then ask for that. Ask me to take Stark’s throne away from him and give it to someone more trustworthy.” 

Fury faced Loki again. “Not just anyone.” 

Loki laughed, knowing where Fury’s mind had immediately gone. “Oh, and this man you have in mind, what qualities make him more suitable than me?” 

“For one, he’s human. And sane. You don’t qualify, and for that matter neither do I.” 

“Relax, Director. I’d already excluded myself at ‘trustworthy.’ I’ll see to it that your trustworthy, human, and sane acquaintance takes the throne, and keeps it.” 

“I want the transition to happen with minimal loss of life. Can you do that?” 

Loki smiled and stood. “One conversation with me, and Tony Stark will be begging to relinquish his power. Just you wait.” 

.:.

This time, Loki didn’t bother with the lower floors of Stark Tower. He landed lightly on the balcony outside Stark’s home in the form of a harmless pigeon, and attempted a transformation that would only work if he was still able to do magic on this floor. 

A moment later, Loki was in his most familiar form, that of an Asgardian prince, dressed in the dark grey jeans and green button-down shirt that he had taken to wearing on earth. 

The glass door stood open, so he entered. Loki knew that given the nature of his departure from this place, a harsh welcome was due to find him sooner or later. Glancing around, he took in the newly repaired and repainted walls where he had left destruction on his last visit, then looked to his left and came to a standstill. 

A platter of chocolate chip cookies sat on the bar. Tony sat next to them with his hands pressed between his knees and his legs swinging from the counter. He wore well-tailored trousers and brown silk shirt; what was, for him, a rare compromise between formal and casual attire. If Loki had to guess the motive behind the outfit, he would have said sex appeal, but somehow that didn’t seem to compute with the plate of cookies. 

“I’ve been expecting you,” Tony said with a little too much dramatic flair. 

Loki cocked his head as he walked closer. He wasn’t being bodily attacked. That was either a good sign, or more likely a very, very bad one. “Really? I don’t recall announcing my intention to visit.” 

“You didn’t, but Fury did. By accident. SHIELD has been really not keeping their firewalls up to snuff, past couple weeks.” Tony shrugged. “Not my fault they’re distracted. Aside from the part where it’s entirely because of my actions. That might make it my fault.” 

Loki’s adversary was in far too good a humor. And he had known Loki was coming. With leaden trepidation and considerable embarrassment, it occurred to Loki that he was certainly stepping into a trap. 

Tony braced his hands on the counter to take his weight as he slid neatly down to stand on the floor. “The implementation of the nanites went spectacularly well, as you may have noticed.” 

Loki watched the movement, both tensing for a fight and smiling slightly that they were still on conversation -- a battleground that gave Loki the home-court advantage he was sorely missing. “Indeed,” he said. “And the world falls to its knees. What are you calling yourself now? President?” 

Tony wrinkled his nose. 

“No? King? Emperor? Hegemon? Pharaoh?” 

Tony opened his mouth to say something dismissive, then paused and thought. “Actually ‘Pharaoh’ does have a kind of a ring to it.” He spread his hands in a gesture of grand vision. “Brings to mind monuments that stand for thousands of years and a certain… godhood.” 

Loki raised an eyebrow. 

Tony abruptly batted the thought away. “Yeah, no, you’re right. They let anyone be a god nowadays. I’ll stick with ‘Iron Man.’ Anyway, I’m not a king! That would be way too much work. I’m just a guy who likes peace.” 

“...And has the resources to easily kill those who don’t.” 

Shrugging again, Tony selected a slightly broken cookie from the tray and picked it up. “When it’s necessary, yeah.” 

“That leaves you with only one problem.” 

Tony held up a finger and made an _ooh, I know the answer_ sound, muffled because he was taking a bite of cookie. Once he had chewed a little he said, “You still owe a ‘boon.’” 

“Yes. To Nick Fury, who has an admirable lack of faith in your ability to responsibly manage total world domination.” 

Tony paced forward thoughtfully, cookie in hand. “Admittedly, you are a problem. A very annoying problem, and Pepper and I have talked about it, and we’ve decided there’s only one thing to do about you.” 

Loki kept his face carefully blank. _Of course._ Of course the lovers had reconciled, and of course Pepper still viewed Loki as an enemy. What fate would she chose for him who had forced pain and chaos into her heart? “And what’s that? Kill me? Imprison me again? Because that worked _so well_ for you last time.” 

“Nope. We’re going to seduce you over to our side,” Tony announced, and waited gleefully for a reaction. 

Loki’s eyes widened briefly before his expression smoothed over, effectively hiding whatever emotion might have followed surprise. “How will you manage that?” 

“With seduction, mostly, but if that doesn’t work, we also have cookies.” Tony took a slow second bite, observed the way Loki’s eyes followed the movement, and inwardly concluded that his plan was a very good plan. 

“Pepper agreed to this course of action,” Loki said dubiously, but his eyes were still trained on Tony’s mouth in a wonderfully unsettling sort of way. 

“Did. Jarvis, bring Pepper up here.” 

“She is on her way, sir.” 

Loki said, “When a god owes a boon, Stark, he cannot wish it away. I _will_ do what Nick Fury has asked of me.” But there was an amused smile creeping onto his face, like he didn’t find much cause for concern in his own threats. 

Tony nodded once. “Okay, and what’s he asked of you exactly?” 

At the sound of the elevator door, Loki turned, saw Pepper stepping out, and concluded, “I’ll tell you later.” 

Pepper was wearing that white shirt and cutoff shorts combination that set of all the warm hues of her skin and hair and made her legs seem to go on for miles. She walked smoothly into the room and treated their guest to a smile that managed to be both ironic and affectionately pleased. “Loki. Hello again.” 

“Pepper,” Loki greeted in tones of quiet disbelief. 

His accent made the last “r” nearly fall away. It was, Pepper realized, the first time Loki had used her name to address her since that first day in his cell, and now she liked far too much the way it sounded in his mouth. 

Loki stepped closer, but his expression was guarded, eyes flitting over her. He had the look of someone expecting a knife in the stomach just as much as anything more pleasant. “You won’t walk away this time?” 

Pepper stepped closer too, until the air between them took on the slight magnetic charge of proximity and she had to angle her head up to look at Loki’s face. 

She glanced aside and at Tony and answered, “I don’t think I have to.” A slight, worried frown tugged at her forehead. “Tony, are you _sure_ about this?” 

Tony rolled his eyes, because he and Pepper had had this conversation already. _Don’t ask him to trust us if we’re just going to push him away later,_ she had said. Tony had to admit, with the way Loki looked at her like she was too breakable to touch or might vanish at any moment, he could sort of understand Pepper’s concern. He sympathized with Loki’s concern too, since Tony was pretty sharply aware right now of what it felt like to almost lose Pepper Potts. 

“Pretty sure,” Tony said with finality, then added, “Just as long as he understands that it’s a package deal.” He addressed Loki. “You get both of us or neither.” 

Loki took a moment to absorb that, and then slowly he grinned, uncertainty forgotten as he sent Tony a winningly unsound smile, full of all the challenge that look had held the other day when Tony threatened to take Loki’s magic away. That grin was, _I dare you to take me on,_ but now there was affection and gratitude mixed in and the dare was no less terrifying for it. “Perfect.” 

The resident madman grinned back in kind. “I think we all understand each other.” 

Pepper frowned. “What about Fury?” 

Tony gave her a wide-eyed look of mock horror that had Pepper rolling her eyes. 

She glanced questioningly at Loki, silently reiterating her question, and found the god treating her to a slight, boastful smirk. “I’ve already dealt with Fury,” he assured her smoothly. 

Pepper rested her hands up on Loki’s shoulders and lifted one corner of her mouth in wry suspicion. “I’ve been with Tony too long for _evasively literal_ to work on me anymore,” she informed him. “You have a _plan_ for how you _will handle_ him.” Lightly, she added, “And you’re not sure if it’ll work.” 

Loki smiled down at her and briefly closed his eyes in acknowledgment that she had caught the lie in his half-truth. He opened his eyes and the smile remained, warmer than he could possibly have intended. Pepper became aware of the shape of his shoulders under her fingers through the thin material of his shirt. Always separated by walls or hesitation, this was the first time she had actually _touched_ the man, and part of her thrilled at even finding him solid and real. He seemed like the type far too likely to disappear in a puff of smoke, much as he seemed to fear that _she_ would. 

But much of his caution had faded, and she admired the way he looked down at her now, with something genuinely boyish in the hopeful curve of his lips, so much younger in this moment than he’d ever looked before. Tensing her arms and shifting a little of her weight up to her hands, Pepper stood on tiptoe to kiss that smile. 

Loki kissed her back, bringing up his fingertips to touch her face lightly as he had not quite let himself do the other day. He was brumal fire, precise and quick, worshipful and maddening. 

To him, Pepper was heat in winter, warm breath and soft lips leading him through a winding, exploring kiss that brought Loki’s blood to a gently scalding boil. Losing his hesitation, he gripped her jaw and angled it up to deepen the kiss. She made a noise and fisted her hands in his shirt, gripping the material hard. Her hands relaxed and flattened against his torso, sliding up to create a gentle friction with the cloth that still lay between her and his skin. Loki shuddered at the feeling and his eyes tightened further shut, as if pleasure and gentleness were his own idea of pain. 

An addictive pain, and Loki reached down to the small of her back to pull her full against him as he continued delving into her mouth and his hands wandered down to her hips. Pepper reached up and ran her hands through his hair, making mess of order and eliciting a hum of contentment from _Loki_ of all people. 

Tony watched, enjoying the view, but twisting his lip to one side in annoyance as he felt jealousy creeping in. He stepped forward and tapped hard Loki on the shoulder with his fingertips. “Mind if I cut in? Not actually a question. I’m cutting in.” 

The two reluctantly pulled apart. Pepper’s hands slid off Loki’s head and down his chest, pushing lightly to counteract a powerful attraction. _You could measure that in teslas,_ Tony thought a little sourly as the two shifted just enough to angle their bodies toward him. Unhappy with the interruption, Loki glared at Tony, dark hair still tousled from Pepper’s fingers, eyes all cold and gleaming edges; ice that was all the sharper for being half-melted. Tony felt a pleasant shudder slice down his spine at the sight of it, and surprised Loki by kissing _him_ rather than Pepper. 

Really, Loki had no right to be surprised. Tony had told him this was the plan. 

Tony was hunger and friction and provocation, and Loki forgot his surprise and fought back in all the most wonderful ways. He pressed hard against the other man’s tongue in his mouth until Tony gave ground, and he gripped the smooth brown material of Tony’s shirt to hold him in place and kept pressing, demanding more submission and more sensory data. Coconut and sucrose and traces of metal and chocolate, deep and bitter, combined in a lovely half-rusty taste. Chasing that flavor, Loki bit hard at Tony’s lip, drawing blood and a muffled yelp from Tony, which turned into an approving moan as endorphins rushed to answer pain and Loki licked at the blood there, comparing and contrasting and finding it saltier and sharper than the rest of Tony’s mouth, but similarly metallic. 

Tony still held the cookie in one hand, but his other hand was working on the buttons of Loki’s shirt, getting the hang of the task after only a few clumsy tries. At the same time Pepper came up behind Loki, the heat of her body settling against his back as she wrapped her arms around his waist and set to work unbuttoning his pants. With them all pressed so close, the brush of her knuckles as she worked inevitably startled a few wordless groans from Tony where Loki was keeping his mouth too much occupied for anything else. Funny how quickly Loki’s strategies were derailed every time he set foot in this place. He should be working to dethrone this man, there was a mission to complete, but the whole world of plans and ordered thought was unraveling fast, thrown to the wayside in favor of more interesting things like the motions of Tony’s tongue against his. 

The shorter man pulled back to breathe, and Loki automatically moved with the motion before he recalled himself and disengaged his mouth from Tony’s with a muttered swear. He repeated the curse louder when Pepper’s hand slid down and wrapped around his cock. Tony’s hand dragged over Loki’s bare chest while Pepper stroked him, the two somehow in perfect synchrony with each other. 

The dastardly cooperation continued as Tony slid Loki’s unbuttoned shirt down his back, trapping his elbows to his sides and exposing his shoulderblades for perusal by Pepper’s clever mouth, while Tony recovered enough breath to start working his mouth down Loki’s neck. Tony’s free hand was exploring the joints and hollows of Loki’s right shoulder, then the sensitive lower border of his ribcage, then down his side, coming to grip hard at Loki’s hip bone in a subtle gesture of dominance, pointed and grounding and wrecking. One of Pepper’s hands was still stroking glorious, shuddering friction into his cock while the other traced a maddening line slowly up and down the center of his lower abdomen, grazing his belly button each time, and now Tony’s tongue was finding the hollows of his _other_ shoulder, all rasping heat against his skin and steadily refining precision. 

Loki tilted his head up and closed his eyes, overwhelmed by hands and mouths and tugging and dragging, warmth and pressure building, losing himself to a pleasant haze that played counterpoint to sharpening need. “I think your plan may be working,” he managed, breath coming difficult and jagged. 

“You hear that Pepper? I think he likes us.” Tony punctuated that statement by biting lightly at Loki’s nipple, earning a low, rough cry that did seem to prove his point. 

It was too much. Pepper’s grip on him was wonderfully firm, punctuated by the occasional stroke of far, far too gentle, setting his nerves on edge and forcing him to make the most undignified whimper-like sounds in the back of his throat. Tony was still holding Loki’s nipple between his teeth, licking and sucking and pulling Loki closer, stretching the sensations too far until they threatened to snap. Loki forced himself to string together a whispered complaint through the storm. “ _Ahh_. If you don’t _stop_ that I’m not going to -” Pepper’s hand moved faster, Tony bit down harder, and Loki saw white. 

When Loki came back to himself, his forehead was resting on Tony’s shoulder and his body was gasping for breath, and each inhalation sent a wave of pleasant sparks through his chest and out to his limbs. Tony and Pepper were leaning close against him, holding him upright, and his mind was only just reawakening to catalog the distinctions and boundaries that existed between him and to two mortals trapping him between them. His mind concluded that there was too much clothing. 

A voice drifted through his awareness. Tony’s, muffled by the act of chewing. “Loki and chocolate chip. This is going to ruin all other cookies for me, I swear.” 

“Lemme try that.” Pepper. 

Loki was caught somewhere between luxuriating in the pleasant vibration of their every word thrumming through their chests and his, and arriving at the sharp realization of exactly which two food groups Tony had thought to combine. Pepper made a noise of gustatory appreciation and Loki, hearing it, groaned into Tony’s shoulder. 

“So, _God,_ right?” This was Tony. “How long d'you think before he’s up for more?” 

It seemed rather perfectly fated, Loki thought, that his half-removed shirt trapped his arms so he could still -- only _just_ \-- reach the clasp of Tony’s pants. He worked at the button with one hand while the other prodded Tony through the fabric and started stroking in a way that made Tony close his eyes and breathe, “Ohshityes.” 

The last of the cookie hit the floor. Pepper chuckled at Tony, but Loki just raised his head to carefully examine the man’s reactions, watching the small muscles in his face twitch with the motions of Loki’s hands, weighing and setting plans. 

Pepper’s hand settled on Loki’s hips, a pleasant, distracting pressure, and if she did anything else he would lose track of all his focus again and possibly his plans with it. Loki decided to change the game. He neatly and abruptly slid out from between the two, finally removing himself from the center of their devastatingly thorough attentions. Tony’s hands shot out to Pepper’s shoulders to keep himself upright, suddenly missing the weight of Loki’s body and the dizzying motions of his hands. “Jeez. Tease, much?” 

Coming to a standstill a few feet away, Loki could clearly see both of the mortals who had so gratifyingly corrupted him and won him over, carefully taking in their their current state while he planned vengeance in kind. 

Tony looked back at Loki hungrily while he found his feet and dropped a hand from one of Pepper’s shoulders. His shirt was creased and crumpled from the grip of Loki’s hands and his lower lip was damaged where Loki had bitten it, a tiny maroon line set in swollen scarlet. 

Pepper’s clothing and hair were still comparatively unmussed. She was only flushed and curious, watching Loki with pleasure-darkened eyes to see if he was planning to flee any farther. 

Loki made no moves to do so. Having regained what she considered an unfair amount of composure, he reached back to disentangle his forearms from his shirt and drop the garment to the floor, at the same time stepping out of his shoes and socks. Then he looked up, back and forth between the two of them, expression passive, his eyes contemplative as they settled on Pepper. “You next, I think,” Loki decided, and Pepper felt a sweep of intoxicating unease, not unlike an ill-advised look downward from a deadly height. 

Loki placed one foot behind another, stepping back invitingly toward the bedroom, arms out in a half-beckon, now clad only in unfastened pants that slipped tantalizingly lower with each step. 

Tony put a hand to the small of Pepper’s back and pushed. “Welp, you heard the man. Ladies first. Let’s not keep him waiting.” 

“In a hurry, Tony?” she asked as she permitted him to propel her forward. 

“If _you’re not,_ then I assume you’ve gone blind.” 

A few more steps and they were in the bedroom. Loki took Pepper’s hand as he would a queen’s and helped her onto the bed with elegant, gentlemanly superfluousness. 

Tony went to climb in after, but, “You are _not_ coming to bed dressed like that,” Pepper informed him, looking Tony up and down with clear disapproval at his being by far the most dressed of the three, shirt still buttoned, trousers and shoes still on. 

Tony pouted like a wounded puppy and considered arguing for a split-second before he realized that the problem had a simple solution, and started working his way free of garments and shoes and socks. 

Loki crawled over Pepper, contemplating _her_ attire. She was still wearing the shirt and denim shorts she had arrived in, but they were minimal and left Loki free to trace his hands slowly up the lines of her calves and thighs, earning an uneven breath and a look full of pleased apprehension. And it meant Loki could undress her. Loki liked that, the peeling away of layers, the discovery of things hidden, letting her feel the difference between his hands caressing over the fabric and under it. Making Pepper fall apart was likely the most exquisite prospect ever set before Loki. 

His instincts clamored with distrust when presented with something he desired so much, and part of him was tempted to ask, _Can I? Really?_ like a child suddenly and strangely allowed to play with the best toy. But she had agreed not to walk away, and here she was under him all flushed skin and willing mouth pressing up into his. Hesitating would not serve him here. 

So Loki set about making her squirm, making her perception narrow to the feel of his mouth and hands. For the moment Tony cooperated in the task, arriving a minute into the proceeding and positioning himself to whisper filth in her ear with all the familiar accuracy of a long-standing lover, making Pepper voice brief, whimpering moans of startled approval. 

Her shirt was first to go, with all due ceremony and teasing from Loki, followed by shorts and panties. Loki kissed her foot as he cast them aside, then he moved to the inside of her ankle, licking a circle around the medial point of her tibia. Pepper hummed in bliss, but the sound took on a rougher edge of impatience as Loki continued unhurriedly to the front of her ankle. She hooked her other foot under his shoulder and tugged, directing him closer. 

Loki bit lightly at the tendons under his mouth and Pepper’s body jerked briefly -- all pleasure -- before he followed her lead and allowed himself to be pulled up far enough to face her and kiss her mouth again. She was divine, kissing him back hungrily, and Loki shuddered, his body wanting to be buried in her nearly as much as his mind wanted to draw this out. He focused his hands on the bra she was still wearing, a construction of beige-copper colored lace just a shade lighter than her hair. He traced the edges, ran his fingers over her breasts through the fabric, and that made her gasp, made her bare hips grind up into his, dragging his breath away. 

Tony’s hands started wandering Loki’s ribs again, distracting him with calloused fingers and rough nails digging into all the sensitive points Tony had found earlier, drawing a ragged noise from Loki and making it near impossible to focus on the task at hand. And whatever Tony was whispering in Pepper’s ear now, Loki could guess the topic had changed by the way Pepper’s eyes lit up and shifted to take in Loki’s reactions, glittering with fascination and too much clarity. 

Aggravated, Loki pushed Tony down hard by the shoulder and shifted over to get another taste of that mouth, biting lightly over the barely-closed cut on Tony’s lip, a reminder and a warning. Then he pushed deeper, following traces of heat and metal and impossibility until they burned around him. Tony’s hands were fisting in his hair to hold him in place with a kind of desperation and Tony groaned approval into Loki’s mouth, and Loki would have liked very much to smile in his victory at that, because having Tony Stark under his power like this was intoxicating and _exactly right._

As it was, Loki couldn’t do much but groan back. 

But he remembered his earlier plans and pulled back roughly, rolling Tony forcefully onto his side toward Pepper again, a clear unspoken command of, _focus._

Tony focused. 

Pepper was still wearing that bra, and starting to make motions toward squirming out of it herself. Loki pulled her up, wrapping his hands behind her mid back and lifting so that Tony had room to reach under and tug at the metal clasps there. Then Loki was slowly dragging one strap down her arm with his mouth following close behind, kissing as biting and pausing to do devious things to the sensitive inner surface of her elbow. 

Tony made quicker work of the task on his side and immediately moved on to her breasts, taking one in hand and wrapping his mouth over the other, enjoying the alternation of hard nipple and melting-soft areola under his tongue. The attention made Pepper’s toes curl and legs flex in a yearning motion. “ _Tony_ ….” 

Tony stopped to free up his mouth and look up at her. “What do you want, Pep? Tell me.” 

Too far gone to filter her words, she just groaned, “I want Loki to fuck me.” 

Tony felt a lancing electricity through his body that couldn’t decide if it was pure jealousy or pure arousal, hot as anger and at the same time just plain _hot,_ and damn if this whole thing wasn’t all the right kinds of confusing. He sent Loki a dark look. “You heard her.” 

After the quick application of a condom and a little maneuvering, Pepper had one leg hooked over Loki’s shoulder and he was pushing into her, slow and forceful. 

Pepper hummed low in the back of her throat at the feeling of Loki filling her and Tony once again settling next to her, engaging her mouth in a thorough kiss and allowing his hands to continue where they had left off. Tony’s mind and hands excelled at any task he set them to, and the strong, calloused fingers dragged over her chest, rough skin against soft, catching at all the right places. His mouth against hers was warm and reverent and played gentle havoc with her thoughts. She reached out to wrap a hand around Tony’s cock, stroking in time with the rhythm Loki was setting, and Tony’s hands lost some of their precision as he groaned and bucked into the touch. 

Pepper lost track of time as Loki surged in and out of her, turbulent but slow, just this side of gentle. She was riding high on -- what was that word Loki had used? -- focus. Attentiveness. Worshipful scrutiny. Two men capable of perfecting their craft to the finest detail were making a craft of bringing her to quaking, searing orgasm, to making the earth crumble away under her, leaving Pepper suspended at some plummeting height where all was perfection and there were no handholds. It was all blinding light and impossibly tangled, sharing a kiss full of intimate comprehension with a mad inventor while at the same time having her soul swayed and rattled by the pounding, dizzying and not-quite-erratic rhythm of an archetypal force of chaos who was somehow also a man looking to her with consuming intelligence and desperate love. 

Kissing Tony back and wrapping a free leg around Loki’s hips to pull him deeper in, she was engaging both men, present with both, all one and nothing alike. A chord struck of three notes, and it shook with frequencies that melded and defied each other and begged for resolve and begged to go on shaking. 

Loki pulled back again, fighting the tug of her heel in his back to seek out a better angle. He found it, and with a sharp jerk of his hips he made Pepper very nearly scream into Tony’s mouth, her hand spasming and forgetting its work. At that, Tony pulled back, halting the kiss in favor of just watching her face and listening as her voice grew louder and rougher with each of Loki’s thrusts. 

When the alternation of cries and incomprehensible stream of words took on a hint of agitation and the words, “Too much,” tumbled out amid the wreckage, Loki let a thin cord of control snap, climaxed in a few shuddering motions, and went still. 

He braced his hands on the mattress and pulled out, slid Pepper’s leg down from where it was still perched on his shoulder, curled forward and rested his head lightly against the plane of her stomach as they both took a minute to recall the mechanisms of breathing. 

Lying next to them, Tony stared wide-eyed, very turned on and still very, very hard. Once the pair’s breathing started to even out, he sat up a little and said, “Uh, feeling kind of left out over here.” 

Pepper and Loki turned to look him up and down, glanced at each other, and by unspoken agreement moved at the same time to tackle him and hold him flat to the bed. Pepper rested much of the weight of her upper body on his shoulder while Loki wrapped one strong hand over each of Tony’s thighs just above the knee. 

“Okay, Tony,” Pepper agreed tolerantly against his ear. “Your turn.” 

Things were changing gears fast and Tony wasn’t sure whether the shiver running down his spine was from the tone in Pepper’s voice or from the sight of Loki’s head lowering toward his groin at a very promising angle, but either way, it was… “Good. Better. Not feeling so le-- _Shit. God. Wow,_ ” Tony swore on three sharp exhales. 

Loki’s mouth was what Tony imagined heaven would be like if heaven were somewhere dark and hot with unexpected licks and sinful twists and, hey, that sounded kind of like somewhere else, didn’t it? 

Time started to blur for Tony as that mouth moved back and forth, heat descending and retreating and washing over him. Loki knew exactly where to trace his lips and tongue ever-so lightly, agile and staggering, where to lick harder along the side with intent and rasping friction, now opening his mouth wide and surrounding Tony with sliding heat, now retreating to trap the head of Tony’s cock under the softer underside of his tongue and rotating so that impossible softness was dragging around him. 

Tony was riveted by every motion, pretty sure Loki had rendered him incapable of feeling any stretch of skin not touching that ingenious mouth. 

But then Pepper started in on his collarbone and Tony realized that it was more the opposite. The soft touch of her lips jerked his attention outward, once again aware of his whole body, and everything was magnified. The slide of sheets and the tickle of sweat and the slight motions of cool air in the room. Each tactile perception was made more intense and immediate by the state Loki had lured him into, raw and sensitized. Pepper kissed up his neck, warm and soft -- or cold and sharp? -- and moving out of rhythm with Loki’s mouth, and there was so much sensory input, and none of it could be quantified or sorted away or ignored. 

Loki pulled back far enough to create suction, tongue shifting back with a slow, undulating pull, and Tony teetered on the edge, almost came but didn’t quite. “Oh fuck, Loki, that’s good. Don’t ever --” 

The trickster chose that moment to stop, lifting his shoulders, neck and head in one rolling motion as he removed his mouth from its work with a soft, wet noise. 

Tony made a frustrated sound, an odd amalgamation of growl and whimper. 

The god smiled up at him with flushed lips and no hint of remorse, a little breathless after having his mouth so occupied. “Now, about that matter of whether or not you _really_ rule the Earth...” 

Who could care about something like that at a time like this? Fisting his hands hard in the sheets under him, Tony demanded, “You want to negotiate global politics _now_?” Seriously, Loki needed to go back what he’d been doing. _Needed_ to. Tony looked to Pepper for rescue, but she had stopped too while he was distracted. The woman was sitting back on her ankles watching avidly with a renewed flush running up her neck and cheeks, clearly all too approving of Loki’s torture tactics. 

Loki traced the fingers of one hand over the hyperaware skin of Tony’s thigh as if in absent thought, a few points of light, tickling warmth that might as well have been firebrands. Tony was pretty sure the guy was doing it just to be cruel. Tony was pretty sure that something important like mathematical absolutes would start breaking down if Loki didn’t do something to push him over that edge he’d been balanced on just a few desperate seconds ago. 

“The terms of my mission were that I remove you from the seat of power such that someone more suitable would take your place. So, name Pepper ruler of all mankind.” Loki looked over at Pepper and his smile softened but didn’t quite shed its merciless edge. “She meets the criteria beautifully.” 

“Pepper, I’m promoting you again,” Tony gasped out immediately. And then, “Fuck, please, yes…” as Loki’s mouth returned to gracing his cock with slide and motion and sparks of pleasure. Tony let his head fall back and made a noise as Pepper returned to his collarbone and ran her hands up his chest and neck to thread her fingers into his hair. Everything was back to pleasant, rolling heat and a lovely, dark, twisting, building pressure. 

It occurred to Tony that from the moment Loki had stepped away and decided that Pepper would be the next to come, the god had been playing Tony, setting him up to be wound up and desperate, and planning to hold that over him. But it was kind of perfect because who was Tony to rule the world? Why would he even _want_ to? But having Pepper do it, that was… 

It occurred to Tony that Loki was perfect. This was around the moment he was coming down Loki’s throat, hands still fisted tightly in the sheets while Pepper licked electricity into the spot behind his ear and ran her fingers through his hair. So there might have been some lost objectivity there. 

.:.

A good deal later, when they all lay on the bed in a tangled, exhausted heap, basking in the afterglow, Loki spoke up. “I have a confession to make.” 

“Oh?” Tony prompted. 

“When I said that you only had _one_ problem left...” 

“...Yes?” Pepper prompted. 

“...I was lying,” Loki admitted. “On a related note, I understand your nanites are programmed to overlook shields, recurve bows, low-grade explosives, and lump hammers.” 

Tony heaved a long-suffering sigh. “Avengers?” 

“I’m afraid so.” 

.:.

A few days later, they had a visitor. 

“Phil!” Pepper greeted with enthusiasm, taking his hand. “It’s been so long. How are you? I heard you got hurt.” 

“Oh, I’m well enough,” Coulson assured her. “Glad to be working again.” 

“She calls him ‘Phil’?” Loki whispered to Tony, narrowing his eyes at Agent Coulson. 

Tony whispered back, “Yeah, I did _not_ know that. Think we should kill him?” At Loki’s unimpressed look, he amended, “Only a little! Like, not _killing him_ killing him, just… Phil!” he interrupted himself at a more audible volume as Coulson approached. “Hi. Welcome, welcome. Welcome to my home. Have a seat, have a drink...” 

“Good to see you again Mr. Stark, Mr. Odinson.” Coulson shook their hands in turn. “I’m actually here on business. Perhaps we could all sit?” 

They settled into the couches surrounding the coffee table, and Pepper gave Coulson a slightly wary look. “What’s this about?” 

Coulson rested his forearms on his knees and clasped his hands, speaking carefully. “There have been a few changes over at SHIELD. The organization has been… reevaluating its goals, and how best to achieve those goals. We’ve made alterations to the staff profile, shut down outdated projects, and Fury has asked me to come here and offer you a partnership.” 

“We’re not marrying you,” Tony informed him. 

Coulson continued, unfazed. “Before the TIDY incident, SHIELD worked in collaboration with several governments, most notably the US and its allies. Miss Potts, it’s become apparent that you now represent a large portion of the existing world government. I’m here to assure you that SHIELD intends to treat you as such, and that our resources will be available to you from here on out.” 

Pepper smiled magnanimously. “Thank you. Tell Director Fury we really appreciate his support.” 

Loki looked less relieved. “We’d like to hear more about the alterations you’ve made to your ‘staff profile.’” 

Coulson sighed and set aside a layer of his formal persona. “That’s the other reason I’m here: to warn you. Not everyone was happy with Fury’s decision.” Coulson opened his briefcase and pulled out a stack of four folders. 

Loki rubbed his eyebrows with a finger and thumb. “Let me guess. Natasha Romanov, Clint Barton, Steve Rogers, and my idiot brother.” 

“Avengers,” Tony summarized. 

Coulson slid the files over to them. “Good guess. They’ve left SHIELD and joined a rebel cell dedicated to overthrowing you.” 

“Where are they now?” Pepper asked. 

“We lost track of them this morning just north of Fort Lee, so, most likely still in New York. We’re looking into claims that a percentage of today’s tourist influx has ties to the resistance. That’s all we have for you so far.” 

Coulson stood to leave. Pepper and Loki politely stood too, and Tony followed suit a second later. 

“We’ll be setting up SHIELD agents around this building’s perimeter. I’ll be in touch.” 

Tony put an arm around Coulson’s shoulders and walked him to the elevator. “We appreciate the heads-up, but we can take care of it. We’ve got an evil-genius god on our side who makes SHIELD look about as scary as a pile of tribbles. And we’ve got Loki and Pepper. The Avengers will be dust before you can bat an eye. So you can all kick back and go back to whatever you normally do. Put black bags over people’s heads. Write scathing personality profiles. Relax.” 

When they stopped at the elevator, Coulson turned and faced Tony squarely. “Mr. Stark, I want you to know that despite recent events, my personal feelings have not changed. I still believe that you would have been an asset to the Avengers Initiative.” He smiled in a way that was perfectly polite and mildly chilling. “And I believe that if you kill any of the agents who’ve worked under my protection for the past several years, the biggest piece of you anyone ever finds will be the paperclip on your death certificate. Goodbye.” 

Coulson stepped into the elevator and smiled serenely at Tony while the doors closed. 

Tony walked back to Loki and Pepper and blew out a bemused breath. “What does it say about me that I’m not scared of gods or government, but I find that guy kind of terrifying?” 

Loki replied, “It says you’re not so stupid as you appear.” 

Tony looked at him flatly. “Thanks. I’ll - ” 

A high, deafening sound splintered the air, followed by the _chink_ s of scattering glass as a hammer crashed in through the window and hurtled across the room and on through the opposite wall. 

Once outside, the weapon magically reversed course and flew past them again, this time throwing drywall dust across the floor and returning to the hand of an angry god of thunder, who was just finding his feet on the landing pad outside. 

“Seriously?” Tony demanded of the world at large. “I _just_ redecorated in here.” 

“Loki!” Thor shouted, pacing forward. Tony was pretty sure the guy was intentionally walking slowly to amp up the _avenging angel_ look. “Your oaths to Fury are fulfilled! Now, you will return with me to Asgard!” 

Pepper narrowed her eyes dangerously at Thor as he entered through the window his hammer had shattered. “He will not,” she corrected Thor with cold finality. 

“And who are you?” 

Loki cleared his throat. “Brother, allow me to introduce the Lady Pepper Potts. Queen of Earth. My queen, this is Thor Odinson, crown prince of Asgard.” 

Pepper inclined her head slightly, every inch a ruler acknowledging a fellow royal. 

“Earth has no throne,” Thor said flatly. 

Tony scrunched up his nose. “Actually it’s had a _bunch_ and has all along, they’re just not-” 

“It does now,” Loki informed Thor. 

Thor glanced briefly at Pepper, then back at Loki. “As I heard it, this throne was taken by force before it was bestowed on her.” 

“Is there _any other kind of throne_?” Loki demanded, miffed by his brother’s ignorance. 

“Loki, the people of Earth were not meant to be ruled. They look on this as an invasion, and they rebel.” 

“Oh, sure, some of them do,” Tony cut in. “But have you _looked_ at the statistics? Seven billion people, and the resistance only makes up a few hundred fighters. Polls indicate only about ten million people even support the resistance; that’s a fraction of a percent. We put the old approval ratings to shame! Jarvis, show him.” The air filled with charts and excerpts of surveys illustrating his point. 

Thor waved them aside. “I don’t know what your mechanical servants have told you in order to please you, but the people I’ve spoken to are unhappy with your rule.” 

Tony sighed. “You’ve been talking to Natasha.” 

“And others. Whether you’ve the right to rule this world or no, you cannot keep my brother from me. He is guilty of many crimes, and must face Asgardian justice.” 

Pepper spoke again, softly but firmly. “I’ve granted Loki asylum. You can’t have him. Tony, armor.” 

Tony nodded. “Jarvis?” 

“On its way, sir.” 

Thor, his instincts and honor demanding that he not strike the first blow until his opponent was armed, gripped Mjolnir menacingly and waited. 

His allies had no such qualms, so it fell to Loki to catch an arrow out of the air just short of Pepper’s head. Tony registered the _whhish_ of the arrow’s flight a split second later, saw it in Loki’s hand and said, “Throw that out the window. _Now!_ ” 

Loki obeyed swiftly, and the arrow exploded mid-flight out on the landing pad. Tony watched the explosion, weaker than it would have been before the nanites but still enough to injure a human up close. The two assassins who had set their lot against the new rulers must be perched atop some nearby building. He felt a cold rage set in, and the suit arrived and wrapped around him in time to hide a really terrifying smile, made wider by the feeling of metal and lethal power encasing his body. Tony was going to enjoy hurting the hand that had loosed that arrow. 

Thor faced Tony, considering his pose and his armor and deciding how best to attack. His preoccupation made it easy for an invisible Loki to step behind him, take hold of his armor and throw him bodily out the window, using a quickly gestured spell to make the landing pad outside frictionless and send his brother skidding over the edge. 

Loki turned back to the others, running a hand through his hair to straighten it. “That won’t keep him down for long. Thor can take a hard fall. And he can fly.” 

“Noticed that,” Iron Man replied. “Okay, I’m taking the fight outside. Loki, you stay here and protect Pepper.” 

Loki nodded. 

Pepper did not. “You can’t take on four Avengers single-handed!” 

“ _Watch me!_ ” Tony threw back with dark glee. Then his grin faded behind the mask as he realized he’d started an argument he couldn’t win, and Pepper might order Loki away. “No, wait, listen. Loki’s more of a long-range fighter anyway, right?” 

“ _I_ think he’s more dangerous up close,” Pepper countered dryly, but she relented. “You’re right. Loki can use magic from up here. Go.” 

Tony went. Jarvis analyzed the trajectory of the arrow meant for Pepper, tracing it back to a skyscraper a few blocks over. Tony flew straight to it, the display on his HUD showing a scan of the building and zeroing in on two assassins making their way down a flight of stairs inside the top floor. 

Tony crashed on through a window and a wall and headed them off at the bottom of the stairwell. The two acrobatically dodged his blows, leading him back out into the more open space of the conference room he had just barreled through. 

Tony finally got in a good hit, shoving both opponents out the window, then flew out again intending to catch them before they hit the ground. Hawkeye shot a grappling hook up to snag on the floor he had just fallen from, catching Black Widow just in time before he slowed and stopped, leaving them both hanging from a two hundred foot cord against a flat wall of the Chrysler Building. 

Tony left them to work their way out of that predicament while he went for a closer look at the scene below. 

There was a ragtag militia down on the street outside his tower, some of them actually carrying the classic clubs and pitchforks for lack of a better alternative. 

Captain America seemed to be giving orders. Tony decided to land and see if he could talk some sense into the soldier. Easing up on the thrust to come down neatly in the largest patch of clear street he could find, he lifted his face plate and called, “Hey! Spangles!” 

...Thus attracting the attention of a rebellious mob as well as the unimpressed superhero leading them. Yeah, this was already going well. 

“Stark,” Rogers called, walking toward him, and _man,_ did Tony’s enemies ever have the _avenging angel_ walk down pat today. The crowd stood back for their Captain. 

“Hi,” said Tony. “You seem to have something against my front door. Specifically -- wow, you _actually_ brought a battering ram? You guys really went all-out. I hate to break it to you when everyone’s already shown up for the party, but I never agreed to host this shindig. Which brings me to the question of WHAT,” he raised his voice, flippancy giving way to real rage, “EXACTLY. You’re doing AT MY HOUSE!” 

“I don’t take kindly to people who think they own the world.” 

“Oh, didn’t you get the memo? I don’t own the world anymore. I gave it to my girlfriend in exchange for sex.” Tony scratched his chin thoughtfully with a gauntleted finger. “Sex with someone _else,_ ironically enough. That was a good night.” 

Rogers stared at him, slack-jawed with uncomprehending disgust. 

“The point being, I _don’t_ think I own the world. Pepper does, and she’s actually pretty good at it, so there really shouldn’t be any problem. You’re making something of nothing. But hey, that’s _okay,_ we all make mistakes. You guys can all just go home; we’ll forget the whole thing ever happened.” 

“I have a better idea,” said Rogers. 

“You were going to follow that up with a witty but violent one-liner, weren’t you?” Tony sighed and closed his face plate. “Okay.” He raised his hands and charged the repulsors. 

There was quick exchange of projectiles and a few narrow dodges until Tony hit his mark -- the soldier’s star-spangled head -- and Rogers fell flat on his back, unconscious. The crowd rushed to Steve, and there was a shout of, “He’s breathing!” They looked on Tony with disgust, but also fear, not daring to attack him with his suit on. It was _awkward._

And it felt sort of anticlimactic, Tony thought, right before Thor’s hammer hit the back of his own head and his vision briefly went black as the force threw him flying at a sickening angle. 

.:.

Watching the battle from various video feeds in the penthouse, Loki grimaced as Iron Man hit pavement and Pepper sucked in a sharp breath. Fortunately, it didn’t take long for Tony to push himself back to his feet. 

Thor ran forward, aiming another blow, and Loki managed to use the _frictionless surface_ trick again to send Thor skidding into the path of his own hammer, taking a hard knock to the left shoulder. It would only work once, but it would convince Thor not to send his hammer flying again for the rest of the fight. 

Loki had been busy creating illusions to cover stairways and doors in the Chrysler building to subtly block the exits for the two assassins, but now he left them to scurry around in their maze and turned his full attention on Tony and Thor, creating fake Iron Men to distract and confuse his brother. 

It was tragically similar to using the Hulk against the Chitauri, watching Thor charge at the illusions Loki created only to have them vanish at the last possible second. Tony played along beautifully, allowing his doubles to take turns playing the role of smart-talking leader of the pack while he looked for openings and attacked from unexpected angles. 

Behind Loki, the elevator opened and Coulson appeared again. 

Pepper turned. “Phil, what are you doing here?” 

“Fury sent me to act as your bodyguard,” Coulson replied, “...should you need a replacement.” 

Loki clenched his teeth. “Which is Director Fury’s way of saying he thinks the battle is going poorly.” He cursed his own power of insight, because he could tell the director was right. 

Iron Man held the upper hand now, but it was temporary. He was too much outnumbered, and Thor’s strength would outlast all the obstacles Loki could place in his path. The suit, on the other hand, was breakable. The wear of the battle would steadily decrease its function, and the mortal inside it would tire. “We can’t win while Thor still fights,” Loki concluded aloud. 

And, in a strange way, that was perfect. The way for Loki to ensure a win, the way to keep Tony safe… Thor’s death was the only viable outcome. With the right magics -- ugly but necessary magics -- Loki need not even leave his queen to do it. There was something both vindictive and searingly clean in the notion. To end permanently all the former loyalty and love that had so sullied and weakened him, that he had needed so fiercely. It was delicious revenge. It was the ultimate immolation. It was unquestionably called for. 

Loki turned to the woman he loved, and made his offer. “Pepper, he was once my brother. Ask it of me, and I’ll kill him for you.” 

Pepper went still for several seconds. Then she looked hard into his face, frowning as she discerned just how sincere the offer was, and shook her head. “No.” 

“ _No?_ ” Loki gaped, appalled, his bloodlust denied him, his sacrifice dismissed. He went on in tones of disgust. “He attacks your home and makes war on your people unprovoked! Surely - ” 

“ _I’m sure_ you can find a better way.” She held his gaze with steady certainty. 

There was a silence, and it turned into a dangerous silence. He looked down at her and there was a momentary shift, a scornful twitch at the corner of his mouth and a slight narrowing of his eyes, a withdrawal. The decision to distrust. 

Loki spoke again, all too soft. “Did I make a mistake? I thought you a worthy ruler, kind and also ruthless enough to protect your people. I should have known better. I should have known that when the only choice was bloodshed, you would shy away, ceding to the might and idiocy of Asgard’s throne.” 

Pepper’s throat tightened visibly as she took a breath, shaken by Loki’s words but also fearsome with stubborn zeal. “I _am_ protecting my people! Yes, Thor is threatening my world, and all of us. And I killed Obadiah Stane for less, so don’t you _dare_ doubt me. But _this, here_ \- Earth will _not_ go to war with Asgard while I can prevent it.” 

She paused to take in Loki’s face, still stony and closed off, not giving an inch of ground. 

More softly Pepper continued, “Now, no one knows Thor like you do. You know his doubts, you know his assumptions, his weaknesses, what he’s proud of… and you’re the most manipulative person alive in this universe. You are _perfectly capable_ of convincing him to leave under his own will, and that’s what you’re going to do.” 

Loki blinked. He frowned slightly as his bitterness gave way in the face of undeniable logic and the intriguing puzzle of persuading Thor to surrender. He’d failed at the task in the past, certainly. But Loki had grown since. Become less naive. And Thor had learned the weight of guilt. Maybe… 

However. 

“That would require me to leave your side.” 

Pepper’s nostrils flared at Loki’s continued defiance. Before she could speak, Phil Coulson stepped forward. “She’ll be safe with me.” 

She smiled gratefully at Coulson and raised her eyebrows at Loki in a look of, _Well, there you go._

Loki narrowed his eyes at Coulson, unconvinced. 

“You _know_ he’s not lying,” Pepper chided Loki. 

“That doesn’t make him _correct_.” 

Shaking her head at his obstinacy, Pepper stepped toward Loki and pulled his head down for a kiss. Her mouth against his was startling as always, ever a painful, melting reminder of how cold his world was when set sharp against her warmth. When it ended she kept her hand at the nape of his neck and looked up into his eyes, her expression kind and ruthless. “Loki,” she said quietly, “Do as I say.” 

And Loki, for the life of him, could not conjure a refusal to his tongue before Pepper and Coulson had walked together into the elevator and disappeared to some floor of the tower less conspicuous and more safe. 

Loki swore, magicked himself once again onto the form of a pigeon, and flew off to search for Thor. 

.:.

Tony learned how quickly Captain America could recover from a head injury around the same time the two black-clad assassins finally emerged from a long detour through some sky-scraping 20th century architecture. And Thor wasn’t even winded. 

“Great. Back where we started. Any ideas, Jarvis?” Tony asked hopefully as the four Avengers circled him. 

Jarvis said, “Running away is always an option.” 

“Any not wimpy ideas?” 

Loki or some double of him appeared and attacked Thor, luring him off to the side and out of the equation, and leaving Tony with a much more workable fight. He hovered about twenty feet off the street, the captain on the ground below, and the assassins just starting to climb the walls of the buildings on either side of him. 

“I still recommend running, sir,” Jarvis advised again as another explosive arrow hit his wrist and overheated the delicate workings of his left repulsor, throwing him off balance. 

.:.

Loki stood with his back to a wall, and an angry god of thunder stood before him, fist gripping at the neck of his armor. 

Around them, giving the gods a wide birth, a mess of hand-to-hand combat raged between SHIELD agents and rebel fighters. That round was definitely going to the agents, who were making short work of disabling their opponents, arresting them, and making them disappear into black vans and unmarked cars that cycled continually through the proceedings. 

“Look at this!” Thor shouted at Loki, “Look around you! You think this will end with your rule?” 

Loki hadn’t stopped speaking for Thor’s words, and continued under him, “ -- it’s too late. There was a time you might have prevented this, but _that time has passed._ ” 

“You need not rule this world!” 

“ _You_ need not stop me!” Loki put a hand on Thor’s forearm. 

Thor lifted his hammer with a growl. But he paused, arm half raised, eyes narrowing in confusion when he realized his brother’s gesture was more conciliatory than violent. 

The arm holding Loki at bay slackened, and the trickster took his chance to step closer and hiss advice sharper and more precisely aimed than his daggers. “Thor, remember all the times you heeded my words and I led you away from folly, and listen now. Please, _stop,_ and _think._ You say it’s not too late, but the war you’re fighting ended before it began. What are you doing here, but creating senseless violence? Look around, _yourself._ The humans no longer slaughter each other in droves. There is peace, but for the war _you_ bring. You come here as you once came to Jotunheim, to challenge a ruler rashly, with too few warriors and too little reason. Recall your humility, brother. _I_ can’t stop this madness, but _you_ can.” 

Thor glanced downward, shame and troubled doubt making their way in as he considered Loki’s words. “I don’t know,” he confessed. 

“Then _learn._ Put down your weapon and ask your questions. Wait to make war until you know your purpose in fighting.” 

Thor half lowered his hammer, but gripped it harder. “I have a duty to bring you home to Asgard.” 

“Consider the consequences of that. Is it _worth_ it, Thor? Bring me back to Asgard and then… what? Celebrate my homecoming? Imprison me? Only to anger those who now rule Midgard, only to see the realm you so love turn against you? What are you trying to achieve?” 

It took a full minute of thought, but at last Thor’s shoulders sagged and he dropped Mjolnir to the ground and let go his hold on Loki’s armor. “I have questions,” he said resolutely. 

“And I have a lover to protect.” Loki indicated Tony, who stood taking on Captain America and two very skilled assassins, and losing ground. “Perhaps… another time?” Loki grinned smugly and stepped to the side, changing forms once again and flying off toward the battle before Thor could answer. 

Thor gritted his teeth in anger, but could think of no good reason to continue this war he had unwisely joined. He took up his hammer and started spinning it. 

“Is that beloved brother of yours going out for reinforcements?” Tony asked as Loki landed on the street beside him and became himself again and Thor disappeared into the northeast sky. 

“No, he’s been dealt with,” Loki replied. “I convinced him it was better to leave.” 

Tony dodged a shield aimed for his neck. “Took you what, two minutes? Remind me not to get on your bad side.” 

“I think there, you overestimate my persuasive abilities.” Loki created five illusory shields that bounced off the wall behind them at varying angles, leaving Rogers to try to catch one at random, missing the real one. 

“Well, you got the god out of the way. Now we’ve just got two elite assassins and a super-soldier. That should be - _Where’s Pepper_?!” 

“With Coulson. She ordered me away.” 

“Then you should have said no! _Ow,_ geez,” Tony added as an arrow exploded along one of the weak points in his armor, burning him. 

“I suggest we focus on the task at hand,” Loki advised dryly. 

“Yeah, fine. Do you want the scary one or the annoying spangly one?” 

Loki’s eyes danced across the options and glittered when they landed on Barton. “What about the one who shot an explosive arrow at our queen?” 

“You can’t have that one. I’m going to grind that one into powder.” 

Another black, unmarked car pulled up, and Fury stepped out, holding a long fighting staff made of some sort of dark metal. He walked toward Captain America and took an offensive pose. “Time to call it quits, son.” 

Rogers didn’t seem to think much of the weapon, but he stopped to address Fury’s words. “Yeah, I think you know an awful lot about quitting.” 

Romanov eyed the opposition, not liking how the odds had evened. “Rogers, don’t get distracted,” she called. 

Fury went on talking. “We made the decision that was in the best interest of the world. I recommend you do the same.” 

Steve took a step forward and gestured at Iron Man. “So, _this_ is the way, the ‘best interest?’ Give up our freedom, our whole democracy? Sounds like the coward’s way out. If you really believed in anything but keeping SHIELD in charge of-” 

Steve took another blow to the head from Tony’s right repulsor and fell flat again, and this time a group of SHIELD agents descended on him and carried him away on a stretcher. 

Barton dropped to the ground and cleared his throat. “Um. How’s about the one who shot an explosive arrow at your queen agrees to surrender?” 

“ _What?_ ” Tony demanded in shocked disappointment. “Wait. No one heard that right? Like, we can all tell Pepper he never said that.” 

“I heard that,” said Pepper’s voice over the comms. 

“Damn,” said Tony. “Alright. Fine. Hand over your bow.” 

The archer nodded. 

“Barton.” Romanov came to stand next to her ally and looked to him for a cue. _What’s your play?_

Barton shrugged back at her. “We lost.” 

Then Natasha realized Clint meant it. She crossed her arms and stepped close to him, quietly incensed. She spoke too low for any but him to hear. “You’re going to turn yourself in? _To SHIELD?_ What happened to caring who we work for? When we met, _you’re_ the one who made a different call and told me to do the same. _You’re_ the one who told me I could try to balance the books. Now, _I_ vouched for Loki and it went bad. That’s in my ledger now. If we let him take over, what are you gonna tell me this time?” 

Clint unstrung his bow. “Same thing I told you then, Nat. I don’t aim at what I know I’m gonna miss.” He handed the weapon off and allowed himself to be handcuffed and guided into the back seat of a SHIELD vehicle. 

Natasha estimated that she could probably make a break for it with decent odds. It was a choice between surrendering and leaving her partner. After a second of thought, she followed Clint’s example and climbed into the car next to him. 

Fury closed the door after them. The car drove away and another arrived. Fury opened the door of this one as well, this time for himself, but he turned back. 

Tony had taken off his helmet and was examining the dent Thor’s hammer had left in the occipital plate. “You know, I think he was really trying to kill me,” he concluded, sounding miffed. 

“You just noticed that?” Loki questioned dryly. 

“Mr. Laufeyson,” Fury called. When Loki turned, he said, “You’re going to keep to the last part of our bargain, I trust.” 

“Of course, Director,” Loki replied blandly. 

“Good. Mr. Stark,” Fury added with a nod by way of polite acknowledgement, and got into his car. 

“What was that about?” Tony asked, uneasy. 

Loki looked after the car, expression carefully devoid of emotion. “I have one last promise to fulfill before my business with Fury is settled.” 

“There’s _another thing?_ Seriously?” 

“I believe Fury’s exact condition was that when our business was concluded I would ‘slink on home.’” 

Tony brightened up. “There’s slinking involved? I _like_ this thing. This thing I can get behind. Which, come to think of it, sounds like a great vantage point. Lead the way.” Grinning, Tony gestured toward the tower. 

Loki’s eyes followed the gesture. “My home being Stark Tower? You presume a great deal.” 

Tony scoffed. “Yeah. Right. Stark Tower.” 

Loki gave him a questioning look. 

Tony rolled his eyes. “You really don’t live anywhere. I don’t either. We both have the same home, and it’s not New York any more than it’s Asgard or Malibu.” 

“No,” Loki agreed. “It’s her.” 

“Yeah. Now make with the slink.” 

They arrived in the lobby of Stark Tower a few minutes later. Pepper appeared, surrounded by SHIELD agents, which made Tony go tense with unease for a split second before she ran up to him and kissed him fervently with a relieved sort of possessiveness. Tony was grinning when she released him. “So,” he said, “We won.” 

“We did,” Loki agreed. “And if it’s all the same to you both, I’ll have that drink now.” 

So the three retreated upstairs, shared a toast to world peace, and started in on living happily ever after. 

.:.

Two weeks had passed. 

When a scientist calling himself Bruce Brooks applied for a job in the tower and failed the background check on an epic level, Tony quietly saw to it that no fuss was made and the applicant was hired. 

When Jarvis informed Tony that his new employee had been sneaking into the labs late at night to run experiments on the effects of gamma radiation and the reversal thereof, Tony smiled to himself, and told Jarvis to leave the man be. 

.:.

Tony was having a good day, apart from navigating an awkward call from a genetic engineer he’d once slept with in Switzerland. It was not so much awkward because of the one night stand as because, “Damn it Tony, your nanites ate all my plants!” There followed some grim and mysterious comments from Maya about “not having a boss anymore,” and from there she managed to finagle him into giving her a job at a Stark R&D facility near Miami. 

Now he was procrastinating on a few matters of state, instead wandering the top ten floors of the tower and catching up on some of the projects the scientists there were working on. He had some amazing minds at work, curing cancer here and chipping away at light speed travel there, and it really was amazing to watch it all come together. 

He saw Bruce catch sight of him, and the scientist hurriedly turned away under the guise of checking a test tube. Maybe he thought Tony would recognize his face after the brief glimpse he had gotten on videochat during the Tesseract incident. 

“Doctor Brooks,” Tony called, and Bruce froze. 

Tony approached and made no sign of undue recognition when he saw Bruce’s face. He just shook the man’s hand jovially and smiled. “Been meaning to talk to you. I find the research you’ve been doing here just fascinating. Really inspired, if… a little misguided.” 

Bruce looked at Tony as if he were hard put not to say, _Are **you** seriously saying that to **me**?_

Tony met the look and said, “Touche.” He pulled out a Stark Pad and rooted around in it for the right document. “Now, I’ve had Jarvis send me my own copy of all your experiments. I’ve been playing around with them, and I had a few ideas that I think you might find interesting.” He handed the tablet to Bruce and waited. 

Of course, the experiments Tony had copied were the ones Bruce did at night, with no intention of being observed. The notes and hypotheses on the tablet were all about reversing the effects of gamma exposure. Bruce stood rooted to the spot and stared at the screen. Quite likely the only reason he wasn’t running for the door was that Tony’s ideas were all very, very good ones and he couldn’t tear his eyes away. 

“I know you may have other plans, but I’m a big fan of your work. I’d like you to stay on.” 

Bruce’s eyes were still glued to the tablet, but he said, “And If I say no?” 

“Then you’ve got a big green rage monster and I’ve got a lot of glass windows. I’m not gonna stop you. But there’s no other place in the world where you’ll see the kind of breakthroughs you’re making here.” 

Bruce finally looked up at Tony, crossing his arms. “Which you can then use to rule the world with an iron fist.” 

“Okay, first off, I keep telling people, _I_ don’t rule the world. Pepper does. Second, it’s not iron! It’s a gold-titanium alloy, making that metaphor completely… only mostly fitting. And things are pretty great, anyway. Have you _looked_ at the world? People walk the streets with touchscreens in their hands and rapiers in their belts and its _not_ a cosplay thing. Do you realize how _cool_ that is?” 

“It’s all fun and games until somebody loses an iphone,” Bruce sighed. “I’m serious, though. How do I know you won’t use my findings to create weapons?” 

“Okay. Look. I’m somewhat familiar with the experience of having someone else use my tech for more nefarious purposes than I built it for.” 

“What, so, I can trust you?” Bruce guessed disbelievingly. 

“So I know how oblivious you have to be to let that happen in the first place.” Tony put down the tablet and picked up a pointed tool to fiddle with. “And how careful you’ll be now to make sure I’m _not_ misusing it. Because you’re paranoid now. And that’s _great,_ don’t get me wrong. But are you going to let that get between you and the lives your medical research could save if you stay?” 

“Probably, yeah.” 

“Okay.” Tony stepped a little closer with a slight air of conspiracy. “Are you going to at least stick around long enough to try some of these ideas for gamma reversal and let me try to convince you to stay longer?” 

“Probably. Yeah. _Ow!_ ” 

.:.

Six months had passed. 

Pepper was supposed to be on vacation, but she was bent over her tablet, reading over security reports and statistical summaries and doing her best to focus. Loki was holding her secure in his lap, nuzzling at her cheek with an air of intent fascination. 

Loki’s default setting with her seemed to be intent fascination, and she basked in the attention. In general it had the added advantage of giving Tony someone to compete with for _her_ attention. It was a long-standing hassle to drag the engineer away from his toys; now the jealous toddler in Tony drove him to always try for the toy Loki was playing with, namely Pepper. Spectacular fights sometimes ensued, but they tended to end well for everyone involved. 

Pepper also noticed that Tony’s awareness of anniversaries and taste in gifts had improved to a miraculous degree, and suspected Loki of giving him advice. More so when Tony was ridiculously off the mark; Pepper had opted not to tell him that he had celebrated her birthday twice in four months. Instead, she simply waited to see how many more birthdays she would have this year before Tony caught on. 

The world was still coming to terms with the new order of things, but the initial uproar was starting to die down, and the three had retreated to the Malibu house for a month long break from the center of politics -- of course you could never really have a break from politics. There were still social events and meetings and every kind of obligation. Tony and Pepper had been to an event earlier that day, and Loki had gone out on his own unnamed business. But now it was evening, quiet and cool, and they were home. Tony clattered away in his workshop and Pepper sat in Loki’s lap atop a couch in the great room, ostensibly relaxing despite the work in her hands. 

“You’re gritting your teeth,” Loki observed softly, “And you shake your head slightly every few minutes, as if you’re imagining arguing with someone. What has Tony done?” 

Pepper sighed and looked up at the ceiling. Her shoulders sagged with released tension at having her annoyance called out, but at the same time her walls went up. “It’s nothing,” she muttered and returned to her work. 

“God of lies, Pepper,” Loki reminded her. 

Pepper stilled and closer her eyes tightly in aggravated resignation. “Funny how you only say that when you want me to _stop_ lying.” 

“At any rate, I think I can guess. A formal dinner that influences the state of the world, and he arrived late, or improperly dressed, or gave some ridiculous toast that insulted half the guests…” Loki took in Pepper’s expression. “...Or all of the above.” 

“And it’s not just today!” Pepper finally started fuming. “He always does this! Have you seen the youtube videos? Wherever there are people watching, well, there’s Tony, making an ass of himself. And if he’s not being a public fool, then he’s not where he’s supposed to be because he’s almost getting himself killed in some completely unnecessary way, and just for one day -- _one day_ \-- I thought he could grow up and be in the right place at the right time! I mean, is that so much to ask?” 

“To grow up in one day? I doubt you really believed that.” 

“You’re right. I _knew_ this would happen. I _knew_ he couldn’t do what I asked. I knew this would be like every other stupid time I need something from him. Because there’s always something else, some reason he can’t do it. Because if he’s not building something, he’s taking on the world in some ridiculous lone-man vendetta, and it’s _always_ urgent and it _always_ has to be him fighting it. He doesn’t let these things go, he can’t leave anything unquestioned, can’t leave a polite lie uncorrected, or take a jibe quietly, no matter how much better it would be, no matter how much more smoothly _everything_ would go ninety percent of the time if he could just sit quietly and act like… like a responsible adult or....” Pepper struggled for words. 

Loki was perfectly quiet and attentive as he listened, and he listened to the words under her words -- sometimes she hated that -- and when she added nothing, he said, “Do you want Tony to be less than he is?” 

Pepper felt her face go hot. “No! No, of course not. I just want him to more careful with his image!” 

“It’s one and the same, isn’t it? You can’t have both, darling. He can bend to people’s expectations, become stately and reliable and predictable, or he can be as he is now: infuriating and brilliant, brutal and honest, formidable and clumsily endearing. Were he to attempt to pander more than he already does, a bitterness would set in, and the fire in him would go out.” 

“You’re quoting Jack Dawson,” Pepper complained, turning her head to look at Loki admonishingly. “I never should have let you watch _Titanic_.” 

“It was your idea, love, and an inspiring one. I’ll never look at Tony’s vintage car collection the same way again.” 

Pepper fought down a smile at that set of memories. Tony had gone to bed early one night when he heard that Loki and Pepper intended to watch the sappy romance. To this day, the inventor still hadn’t heard about the resulting escapades into his garage. 

She ignored the light of reminiscent mischief in Loki’s eyes and forged on with her point. “But it’s a matter of _respect._ I asked Tony to be there at a certain time and in a certain state. And he agreed!” 

“That, I think, was his mistake,” Loki mused. “He makes promises he hasn’t the self-awareness to keep.” 

“That’s what I mean. He doesn’t respect me!” 

Loki gave her a look. A wry, questioning look with one eyebrow raised and the other tilted sharply inward, and it all translated to something like, _Really? Now, I could have sworn you knew how to think._

“...Tony does respect me,” Pepper amended grudgingly after a pause. 

The look didn’t let up. 

“Tony respects me a lot.” 

“...” 

“I don’t think Tony actually respects anyone _except_ me,” Pepper finally sighed, giving in and leaning back into Loki’s shoulder. 

Loki chuckled. “Not as anything more than formidable opponent, no.” 

“He doesn’t even respect _himself,_ ” she added, fuming again, now with far more resignation and accuracy. 

“Not as anything more than a formidable opponent, no,” Loki repeated with renewed humor in his voice. 

“Dear god, that explains a lot, doesn’t it?” 

“Dear mortal, I think it does.” 

She whacked him lightly on the shoulder that wasn’t supporting her head. Then she relaxed again and spoke uncertainly. “Should I stop asking him to change for me?” 

Loki tensed a little. “Never. You’re his home, Pepper. You’re the star by which he navigates. You fight him at every turn, and in doing so you keep him whole. He’d be lost without you.” 

_You mean **you** would be, _ Pepper thought, but she didn’t point out Loki’s lapse into Freudian projection. It was an insight into both men, and she didn’t want to discourage Loki’s uncanny habit of putting words to the inexplicable, and reminding her that knowing Tony better than he knew himself did not excuse her from the task of learning more of him. 

“But I should stop asking him to change for _them,_ ” she concluded. 

“ _They_ are never satisfied,” Loki said by way of agreement. “The more you work to serve them, the more they mock you. The more you bend to make them proud, the more they break you.” 

Pepper nodded, many suspicions about Loki’s history sliding into place along with the revelation that Tony, if pushed, could fall the same way. 

Loki had let a silence descend while Pepper considered his words, and now he broke that silence in carefully bland tone. “Are you still angry with him?” 

“I s’pose not. Why?” 

Before Loki could answer, Tony came upstairs. The inventor took in the sight of his lovers with warm affection and a trace of stifled affrontedness. “Jarvis just said you were home,” he said. He sat down and lounged expansively on the couch next to Loki, a subtle gesture of competition communicating something like, _Hey, I have a lap too._

“I arrived an hour ago,” said Loki. 

“I informed Mr. Stark of your arrival an hour ago, sir,” Jarvis supplied. 

Tony frowned up at the traitorous AI. “Guess I only just noticed. Where were you all day, anyway?” 

Loki started nuzzling at Pepper’s neck again, and his hands drifted down to her hips. “I’ll tell you later.” 

“You say that a lot,” Tony complained, but he scootched in, pressing his body up against Loki’s side. 

“With you two in the room, there’s always something more enjoyable to do than divulge my secrets.” 

“Oh really?” Pepper asked, and there was a rare mischief in her voice. She shifted in Loki’s lap so she could look at him properly, drawing a few sharp breaths from him with the motions. “ _I_ think you’re going to tell us _now._ ” 

Loki titled his head like he was considering any number of replies, but eventually he settled on, “Make me,” and smiled the smile of a doomed man. 

.:.

A long while later Loki found himself in bed, his back to the mattress, comforter and top layer of black silk sheets tangled and tossed aside along with any clothes that had managed to follow the trio all the way to the bedroom. Pepper was sprawled next to him, leaning up to face Loki and tease at his mouth with hers. Loki kissed back, lethally soft and teasing in turn, enjoying the dance of it. Pleasant heat was pooling low in his abdomen, tightening with the slow pace like a web of fine cords, spasming pleasantly as Tony’s fingers flexed inside him, pressed gently where they made Loki see sparks, but moved too, too gently, not granting enough grind or pressure to let that coiling heat do much besides wind tighter. 

Tony was kneeling between Loki’s spread legs, fingers buried in his ass, looking him up and down appreciatively as fine shudders traveled the graceful lines of Loki’s body. 

Loki felt a new splinter of electricity snap through his body as Tony’s mouth wrapped around the head of his cock, and he gasped against Pepper’s mouth. The woman grinned and moved to bite at his lower lip while Tony’s mouth moved to envelop him, still moving ever-so-slowly. And now Pepper’s mouth was covering Loki’s, a long, thorough kiss that smothered and swallowed his groans of pleasure and frustration. 

He made a higher sound when Tony’s fingers and the mouth both pulled away, leaving him empty and bare. 

Then the mouth he was happily dancing with retreated out of reach and he discovered that Pepper was holding his arms down. Loki _knew_ he had the strength to resist that hold, human hands were of such a delicate structure, but he could no more find that strength in this moment than he could halt the bending of the universe. He looked up at the smiling woman and wondered not for the first time how his heart had gotten so thoroughly tied up in hers and what it would take to cut himself free. 

But he was just as happy to leave that problem for some distant century and devote this one to more immediate questions, like where the hell _Tony’s mouth_ had gone. Loki tilted his head to look down at the brilliantly insolent mortal, and the god’s hands and his voice both shook as he spoke through clenched teeth. “Tony, if you don’t continue, I _swear…_ ” 

Tony grinned gleefully. “Been waiting _ages_ to get back at you for this one.” He crossed his arms atop Loki’s thighs in a pose of unhurried attention. “Well?” 

“ _Pepper_ ,” Loki heard himself begging, only to realize instantly that she would be no help. Annoyed with himself, he turned his head sharply to face away from her, and the motion grew into a full body writhe that Loki couldn’t suppress, fascia and muscles contracting under pale skin of their own volition as frustration twisted at him. He made a weak _huh_ sound that wasn’t a sob, except that perhaps it was. 

But he held to the deeper stubbornness of a liesmith. It was one thing to lose his composure and another thing _entirely_ to loosen his tongue. 

Things went on from there, a blurring, pounding desperation, frustration that built and built with time and soft, warm touches and became something more like despair. Pepper was trailing kisses and light teasing bites up his neck, avoiding Loki’s mouth so he couldn’t engage her unless he chose to speak, and Loki would lose the whole game if the wrong words came out. Tony was licking at his lower abdomen, at the forward points of his iliac bone. One hand was rubbing up and down his inner thigh over and over, thumb following the same line with each pass and lighting up that single abstract stretch of skin with burning sensitivity so the light touch and the rough skin of that thumb almost hurt. 

The the pattern disrupted and that hand just kept sliding up and those fingers started stroking at his entrance again and Loki pressed his eyes tightly shut as his mouth worked open and closed, devoting all his will to not whimpering or calling out or telling Tony to go on. 

But impossibly slowly, Tony did move, pushing his fingers in, probing and exploring, searching experimentally as if the damn man didn’t already know _exactly where…_

Loki felt his will start to give, a rip flowing across what had been a solid cable of defiance, the stretch before the snap and break. He writhed again, hips grinding down pointedly to seek an increase in pressure. And Tony gave it to him for just a perfect split second before pulling back a few critical millimeters and grinning again at the broken sound Loki made. 

Pepper spoke against the curve of his shoulder. “It ends as soon as you want it to, Loki. Where were you today?” 

Loki struggled to think, but these two made that _so damn difficult._ His senses were full of the present, full of clever fingers and warm lips, the too-faint taste of Pepper lingering in his mouth and the smell of freshly laundered and freshly sweat-soaked sheets. 

Today. They were asking about today. Where _had_ he been? Well, today had smelled of trees and autumn fruit, there’d been the crunch of twigs underfoot and the relish and mischief of a trick underway… “Woods,” Loki managed. “Asgard. The woods near A-aah…” 

Pepper’s hand, a shock of warm touch wrapped around his cock and giving him another agonizing shadow of the pressure and friction he _needed._ Tony moved aside and now Pepper was straddling Loki, her hands gone from his arms in favor of supporting her weight and lining him up and… 

Loki’s eyes went wide and snapped to Pepper’s as she took him into her, as slick pressure surrounded him and _need-please-more-not-enough_ abruptly reversed course and turned into searing rightness and dizzying overload. Loki was shaking all over now with relief and arousal, grinding up into her and feeling lovely heat scatter like shrapnel and flood his body from each motion. “I…” he tried to take a breath and managed only a series of sharp, shuddering gasps. “...I take it my a-answer was satis… satisfactory.” 

“For now,” she granted. “Roll over.” And she tilted off to the side, pulling him along with her until she was on her back and Loki was on top. Loki grinned, took firm hold of Pepper’s hip and made use of his newfound leverage in a few forceful, controlled thrusts that made her throw her head back and moan, high-pitched and briefly lost. 

Then Loki was distracted by Tony settling in behind him, kissing hot, wandering paths along his shoulder, pushing his legs apart between Pepper’s thighs. Loki was riding a little too close to the edge for that to be a good idea, but Tony’s hands and mouth moved with lazy and marvelous force as the mortal maneuvered him into place, and Loki voiced no objection. Gripping the god’s hips, Tony slid into him in one sharp motion, a swift intrusion of stretch and rasping friction and… that was it. 

Loki felt a change in pressure, a lurching dip as the wave started breaking, ripping away all his sense of gravity and orientation and leaving only -- Pull and give. Momentum and surrender. Careening distance and close, shuddering warmth. Flesh against flesh and Pepper and Tony pressed tight against him, too close and pushing wonderfully closer, the grinding pressure of it intimate and scaldingly right like a broken bone snapped into place. Or a bone being soldered into place, seeing as the burn only got sharper as Loki felt himself melted into it. 

His two lovers kept moving, jerking hips and torn gasps and tangled legs, riding him through it and past it, and it _hurt._ And then it _didn’t,_ and he was hardening again bit by bit as need washed back in, the tide of it rising and falling while it alternated with a world of lingering bliss. 

Pepper was tightening around him periodically, sending jolts jarring through his nerves. Loki reached down between them, fingers seeking out her clit and kneading with measured pressure. Pepper’s finger reached up and threaded through his hair, her whimpers and moans turning higher, and abruptly more urgent as he slid off to the side, nimbly working his hand out and down in an arc, just inside the line where pelvis met thigh, pressing in and dragging his thumb along the ridge of the bone there. Pepper made an encouraging sound and rocked into the touch, pushing him deeper inside her in the process. 

He was fully hard again, and Tony was pushing in and out of him with unrelenting force. Loki moved along with Tony’s thrusts, eyes falling closed and lips expelling a helpless breath every time Tony slammed past his prostate and Pepper slid hot around him. 

Things continued like that until Pepper gasped, coming around him, drawing breath hard enough that a little of her voice caught roughly in the sound. Loki stared in abject wonder at the pleasure playing across her sweat-slick face, the scrunching of her eyebrows and the visible lines of tendon in her neck and the tangle of copper hair that surrounded her. Everything about her was bright against the darkness, and she was calling out against the silence, “ _Uh,_ oh god, yes Loki, _yes_!” 

Loki leaned forward, kissed her for her dearness and with deft fingers he fiddled and played and pressed her for her screams. 

The shaking of her body intensified and it ran through him like an earthquake. Loki jerked out of rhythm, tightening around Tony, catching the mortal off guard and hearing him call out raggedly. After a few thrusts the two men found their tempo again and they rode Pepper through the aftershocks and listened together to the low hums and high-pitched whimpers they drove from her. 

There was a lull in sound. Even as the two men kept moving, Pepper’s vocalizations quieted to low, satisfied moans, her hands relaxing and dropping to slide up and down Loki’s arms in a motion almost soothing, and more than that simply reveling in the feeling of skin sliding over skin. Loki was sharply aware of Tony inside him, still dictating the pace of their motions and pushing through him almost callously and the heat low in the pit of Loki’s stomach was winding up tightly again and he wanted... 

Tony breathed, “Loki,” with low, rough affection. 

Loki shivered and drank in the sound like cool water. “Tony,” he called back, voice hoarse and flat with candor. An acknowledgement, a world of things flowed though the word: love, possessiveness, admiration, desire. This was how they told each other. The days were all contention and smug quips, a constant battle of wits. All the things they would never quite say to each other were here, communicated in the short syllables of fondly spoken names. “ _Tony._ ” 

Tony grunted and shuddered and came, and Loki buried his face against Pepper’s neck, this time giving up his own control much more deliberately than before as Tony’s erratic motions slammed through him. Loki came with a strained cry and Pepper’s arms moved up again to circle his head, holding him through the brief moment of reeling powerlessness that was willfully _letting go._ Orgasm wracked through him, pushing him further into her and melting everything solid. 

Then bliss again, redoubled and breathless, the lazy golden heat of it rolling through his blood, this time accompanied by stillness from his lovers. Pepper’s shoulder was warm under his lips, smelling of salt and other lovely things. Tony’s beard pricked lightly at his back as the human breathed contentedly against his spine. 

The three eventually moved to disentangle, shifting to rest more comfortably together. Loki lay, back flat on the bed, his naked arms thrown out to the sides and he stared up at the ceiling with a certain contemplative windedness. “I’ve made a decision.” 

“Have you?” This was Pepper. 

“Yes. I’m keeping both of you.” 

“Does this mean we’re marrying you?” Tony asked with suspicion. 

Loki snorted. “No.” Moving to lean up on his elbows, he met their baffled looks, reached into thin air and pulled out two gold colored apples, freshly stolen. “Nothing so temporary.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pepper always gets the bad guy in the end ;)
> 
> The line about almost losing Pepper was accidentally half-stolen from Sabulum’s amazing peppertoki fic, [Equalizing Forces.](http://www.archiveofourown.org/works/791093) Also, the chocolate chip cookie in this chapter was originally from qwanderer’s lovely frostiron fic, [Crystalline Alignment,](http://www.archiveofourown.org/works/505023) but it fell between two couch cushions and ended up in a parallel universe.
> 
> A note about concrit: I always want to hear about typos and plot holes and things that aren’t clear. Because it’s fully posted, this story is now open to constructive criticism of a more general variety as well.
> 
> Rave reviews are cool too. I live for comments. Also, feel free to follow [my tumblr.](http://roseapprentice.tumblr.com) Thanks for reading.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [For His Lies Only](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2409467) by [Doodsxd](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doodsxd/pseuds/Doodsxd)




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